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FOUNDATION  FELLOW  OF  THE  SOCIETY  OF  SCIENCE,  LITERATURE  AND  ART,  LONDON. 


VOLUME  I. 


PUBLISHED  BY  J.  P.  MENDUM,  BOSTON,  MASS. 

1885. 


tY 

W 


Copyright,  1885. 


I3P 


C  . 

U  I 


tv 


PREFACE. 


ro 


Accepting  mental  science  as  the  definition  of 
Ideology  that  Webster  and  other  lexicographers 
have  given  us  of  this  term,  it  covers  all  the  facts 
connected  with  “revivals”  and  Christianity;  all 
connected  with  a  state  of  trance,  so  far  as  they 
come  within  the  range  of  human  knowledge.  Yet 
an  M.  D.  in  Lancaster  (Pa.)  sneers  at  Ideology, 
and,  to  avoid  the  use  of  my  term,  thirty  years 
after  I  had  announced  this  discovery,  he  dubbed 
my  idea  of  Involution  and  Evolution  with  the 
cabalistic  term  of  “  Statuvolence,”  in  order  to 
claim  it  as  his  own  invention!  Just  as  if  this 
same  Dr.  F.  had  not  in  1842  carried  on  a  series 
of  experiments,  in  the  use  of  my  terms,  which  he 
published  in  my  scientific  monthly,  the  N.  Y. 
“  Magnet”  !  He  was  then  just  emerging  from  the 
fogs  of  “  mesmerism,”  and  to  this  day  his  eye¬ 
teeth  have  never  appeared  on  the  subject  of 
scientific  investigation.  Nor  does  Dr.  F.’s  pam¬ 
phlet  on  what  he  calls  “  Statuvolence,”  published 
in  1875,  contain  any  idea  in  pyschology  that  Dr. 
F.  himself  did  endorse  under  the  term  of  Pathe- 

iii 


725153 


IV 


PREFACE. 


tism  in  1842.  Indeed,  some  of  the  parties  in 
New  Orleans,  and  others  in  Pennsylvania,  who 
had  become  dissatisfied  with  “  Statuvolence,” 
have  written  me  for  information. 

The  “  Magnet”  was  issued  for  the  purpose  of 
establishing  my  claim  of  discoveries  I  had  made 
six  years  before  1842,  as  Mr.  Horace  Greeley  had 
said,  of  “substantiating  my  discoveries  in  Pyschol- 
ogy  and  Hygiene.”  To  that  “  Magnet”  Dr.  W. 
B.  Fahnestock  was  a  subscriber,  and  from  ’its 
pages  he  got  his  idea  of  Pathetism;  and  for  its 
pages  he  wrote  a  series  of  articles  in  support  of 
my  theory  of  selfhood  and  the  law  of  self-healing 
and  self-induction. 

I  have  sometimes  tried  hard  to  imagine  my 
shoulders  broad  enough  to  bear  any  amount  of 
misrepresentation  and  fraud.  Ideas  may  be 
stolen  as  well,  and  far  more  easily,  than  gold, 
when  the  thief  imagines  that  their  appropriation 
as  his  own  original  invention  will  gratify  his  am¬ 
bition  !  And  I  have  sometimes  almost  wished 
that  my  fraternal  heart  were  good  enough  to 
suffer  long  any  amount  of  injustice,  and  still  be 
kind.  But  I  am  sure  you  will  scarcely  dissent 
from  me  when  I  say  that  there  may  be  a  true 
idea  of  property  in  the  invention  of  new  ideas. 
It  is  certainly  upon  this  consideration  that  our 
patent  laws  are  founded.  Ideas  not  new  or  im¬ 
portant,  are  never  pilfered.  There  is  no  tempta- 


PREFACE. 


v 


tion  to  claim  originality  when  the  invention  is 
worthless  ;  and,  surely,  what  I  now  term  Ideology 
has  been  adopted  and  claimed  during  forty  years 
past,  under  so  many  new-fangled  and  worthless 
terms  that  I  could  not  enumerate  them  here! 

A  man  who  calls  himself  J.  B.  Campbell,  M.  D., 
visited  me  when  engaged  in  business  in  Boston 
in  1857,  to  whom  I  freely  explained  my  method 
of  cure  by  pure  Nutrition.  The  next  I  heard  of 
him  he  had  hitched  a  Greek  and  Latin  term  into 
Vita -Pathy,  and  had  a  college  established  in  Cin¬ 
cinnati  (O.)  for  turning  out  Vita- Pathic  doctors! 
He  is  a  fanatic  ;  nor  should  I  deem  him  worthy 
of  a  moment’s  notice  but  for  the  fact  that  he  has 
sent  me  his  tracts,  in  which  he  has  falsely  stated 
that  I  had  approved  of  his  vagaries,  by  which  he 
is  to  obviate  death  and  render  those  who  swal¬ 
low  his  nostrums  immortal  ! 

And  so  of  “  The  mind  Cure,”  the  “  Faith  Cure,” 
the  “  Divine  Cure,”  the  “  Metaphysical  Cure,”  and 
the  “  cure  of  seven  hundred  cases  of  hydropho¬ 
bia,”  as  reported  in  the  “  Chicago  Tribune.”  Fur¬ 
ther,  the  “  Christian  Science  Cure  ”  managers 
in  Boston,  who  issue  a  monthly  paper,  have  a 
“  metaphysical  college  ”  in  that  city  for  the  manu¬ 
facture  of  mesmeric  doctors  !  These  all  succeed, 
more  or  less,  in  cures  ;  but  no  one  of  the  clique 
has  been  able  to  rival  the  “  madstone  ’  at  the 
West,  I  think. 


VI 


PREFACE. 


Were  Ideology,  or  the  laws  of  Involution  and 
Evolution,  to  be  appreciated  and  generally  ad¬ 
opted,  it  would  annihilate  Christianity  from  the 
face  of  the  earth.  Moreover,  were  it  adopted  by 
the  medical  profession,  it  would  increase  the  suc¬ 
cess  of  that  profession  very  much  indeed;  and 
this  it  would  do,  not,  indeed,  by  inducing  a  state 
of  trance.  This  I  never  did  nor  attempted,  only 
in  my  public  demonstrations  by  surgical  opera¬ 
tions  in  my  lectures. 

Only  a  very  small  percentage  of  minds  can  be 
entranced;  and  “statuvolence  ”  is,  on  this  account, 
misleading.  My  theory  of  self-induction,  that  has 
been  adopted  under  so  many  different  terms,  is 
proved  by  various  classes  of  phenomena,  as  you 
will  perceive  in  reading  this  volume. 


Quincy  (Mass.),  March  14,  18S5. 


CONTENTS. 


I.  —  Selfhood. 

II.  —  Experimental. 

III.  —  Mental  Anaesthesia. 

IV.  —  Miraculous  Cures. 

V.  —  Ideology. 

VI.  —  The  Highest  Laws. 

VII. —No  “  Royal  Road.” 

VIII.  —  Mentality. 

IX.  —  Idiocrasy. 

X.  —  “Christian”  Science. 

XI.  —  The  Bible  Idea  of  “Inspiration.” 

XII.  —  The  Bible  Idea  of  its  God. 

XIII.  —  The  Bible  Idea  of  Witchcraft. 

XIV.  — The  Bible  Idea  of  Mediums. 

XV.  —  Bloody  Ideas,  All  Besmeared  with  Blood. 

XVI.  —  Barbarian  Lies. 

XVII.  —  Humanity  Forever. 


vii 


CHAPTER  I. 


HUMAN  SELFHOOD. 

SELF-GROWTH,  SELF-CONTROL,  SELF-HEALING. 

Webster,  in  his  large  American  Dictionary,  has  given 
more  than  two  hundred  applications  of  this  term  “  Self” 
showing  the  range  of  this  idea  of  selfhood,  in  the  use 
of  different  terms,  in  the  whole  of  language.  A  cor¬ 
rect  estimate  as  to  the  meaning  of  this  selfhood  will 
suggest  the  reasons  for  its  adoption,  when  treating  on 
the  laws  supreme  of  selfhood  and  self-control  in  the 
whole  of  things,  as  it  must  be  in  the  human  mind.  We 
see  this  illustrated  when  a  sensational  idea  results  in 
instant  death.  It  is  a  noteworthy  fact,  that  all  classes 
of  people,  more  or  less  controlled  by  ideas  of  mystical 
phenomena,  admit  the  idea  of  their  own  selfhood ; 
and  thus,  by  implication,  they  admit  the  supremacy  of 
these  laws  of  self-control !  And  they  do  this  while 
their  “faith”  in  mysticism  ignores  it  in  self-induction, 
and  the  evolution  of  those  nervous  and  mental  changes 
they  are  always  ready  to  attribute  to  some  nondescript 
invisibility,  above  or  below,  outside  of  themselves ! 
There  is  no  proof  that  there  is  ever  any  love  or  fear  or 
hope  or  joy  not  s elf -induced ;  always,  however,  these 
emotions  may  be  suggested  to  the  mind.  If  these  laws 
of  selfhood  be  true  in  one  mind,  it  is  so  in  all  minds. 


(i) 


2 


IDEOLOGY. 


All  of  us  admit  these  laws  in  the  solar  system  ;  and  so 
also  they  are  admitted  in  the  human  instincts,  —  in 
vitality ,  nutrition ,  nourishment  and  growth ,  physical  and 
mental.  The  wound  is  self-healed  in  the  body  ;  why 
not,  also,  in  the  mind?  From  these  dominant  laws  we 
are  conscious  of  selfhood,  freedom  in  volition,  or  the 
power  of  choice.  It  is  manifest  in  the  spontaneity  of 
all  the  instincts^  all  the  emotions ;  as  Goldsmith  sung 
long  ago, — 

“  Spontaneous  joys,  where  nature  has  its  play, 

The  soul  adopts,  and  owns  their  first-born  sway.” 

Thus  we  have  sleeping,  laughing,  weeping,  sneezing. 
Even  when  certain  emotions  are  excited,  as  in  “  revival  ” 
epidemics,  by  sympathetic  imitation ,  the  phenomena  are 
self-induced,  and  are  spontaneities.  In  the  sequel  I 
will  describe  the  mental  laws  of  selfhood  by  which  the 
Christian  is  impelled  to  ignore  these  supreme  laws  in 
his  own  case.  Hence,  when  we  come  to  the  Christian 
“experience,”  he  assures  us  that  certain  phenomena 
in  his  case  were  not  induced  at  all,  but  they  were 
produced  in  his  mind  by  the  volition  of  some  nonde¬ 
script  invisibility  outside  of  himself !  Hence  the  “me¬ 
dium  ”  declares  that  it  is  not  he  himself  that  is  speak¬ 
ing,  but  it  is  “Dr.  Franklin,”  or  some  one  that  died  a 
thousand  years  ago  !  The  entranced ,  by  the  “  mesmeric  ” 
processes,  think  that  state  was  not  z/zduced,  but  it  was 
produced  by  the  mere  volition  of  the  “  mesmeriser  !  ” 

The  author’s  discovery  of  these  inherent  mental  and 
physical  laws  was  before  the  announcement  of  the 
“correlation  of  all  forms  of  force.”  They  were  at  first 
announced  in  “Zion’s  Watchman,”  % New  York,  in 
August,  1840,  and  afterwards  in  the  “  New  York 
Magnet,”  a  monthly  I  issued  devoted  to  this  subject. 


HUMAN  SELFHOOD. 


3 


Theologians  have  boasted  that  the  “creed”  is  true, 
nay,  “tremendously  true.”  But  what  if  science  prove 
it  false  ?  Then  it  is  tremendously  false,  —  none  the 
less  false  when  it  ignores  science  and  imposes  upon 
human  ignorance  and  credulity . 

With  the  ancient  “ ism"  the  author’s  acquaintance 
began  more  than  sixty  years  ago.  His  personal  expe¬ 
rience  as  a  “minister”  may  be  inferred  from  his  truth¬ 
ful  description,  in  the  following  pages,  of  the  method  of 
“getting  up”  “revival  epidemics.”  I  invite  any  one 
to  attend  any  camp-meeting  at  a  place  where  sensational 
efforts  are  made,  and  compare  what  he  will  hear  and 
see  done  with  my  account  of  “revivals,”  and  it  will  be 
found,  I  am  sure,  as  I  have  here  stated.  No  theologian 
will  tell  me  that  I  am  not  familiar  with  “  the  means  of 
grace,”  and  sufficiently  to  qualify  me  for  uttering  in 
this  volume  the  literal  truth.  The  author  knows  what 
Christianity  is  !  Were  it  even  possible  to  misrepresent 
it,  he  has  no  motive  in  that  direction.  He  has  far 
more  charity  for  Christians  than  it  is  possible  for  them 
to  exercise  either  towards  him  or  towards  each  other. 
There  can  be  no  motive  in  any  candid,  honest  mind 
familiar  with  the  Bible  for  misrepresenting  it.  Can 
infinite  wrath  be  misrepresented  ?  Can  “  God’s  back 
parts  ”  be  described  ?  Can  a  myth  or  nondescript  be 
caricatured  ?  Can  the  torments  of  an  eternal  hell  be 
too  highly  colored  ? 

The  victims  of  this  old  ism,  both  laymen  and  the 
clergy,  may  here  be  reminded  that  the  author’s  theory 
of  self-induction,  which  proves  the  fraud,  is  admitted 
in  the  sum  total  of  valid  knowledge  by  the  scientific 
world.  Every  sensational  sermon  preached,  and  every 
“sinner  converted,”  are  and  will  be  referred  to  as  posi- 


4 


IDEOLOGY. 


tive  proofs  of  the  truth  of  Ideology.  And  here  is  a 
brief  resume  of  the  proofs,  as  it  was  presented  to  my 
own  mind  forty  years  ago,  and  which  has  been  deeper 
and  stronger  grown  every  day  since,  — 

“  As  streams  their  channels  deeper  wear.” 

I  had  had  an  experience  as  a  ‘‘revival”  minister  for 
twenty  years,  in  the  constant  observation  of  nervous 
and  mental  phenomena,  --all  induced  “  by  faith  ”  in  my 
dogmatism,  or  in  me  as  a  preacher.  Thus,  by  a  pro¬ 
tracted  and  varied  experience,  I  found  these  changes  in 
the  “  trances ,”  spasms,  and  “  visions  ”  of  my  auditors 
confirmed  the  New  Testament  teachings  of  Jesus,  who 
admitted  that  he  had  no  power  over  those  cured  by  his 
“will,”  except  that  power  by  which  he  had  been  invested 
by  the  “faith”  and  confidence  of  those  in  whom  his 
miracles  had  been  wrought.  (Matt.  ix.  28  ;  xiii.  58  :  com¬ 
pare  Mark  i.  41  ;  Luke  v.  13.) 

This  faith,  I  was  taught,  was  not  only  an  act  of  trust 
exercised  by  the  human  mind,  but  it  was  a  sine  qua  non 
in  Christianity ;  and  without  it  we  are  doomed  to  the 
torments  of  an  unending  hell !  That  it  is  only  by  this 
“faith”  That  we  know  there  is  any  God,  (Heb.  xi.  6), 
or  any  Holy  Ghost,  (Acts  xix.  2). 

Having  previously  made  the  experimental  discovery 
in  psychology  referred  to,  I  now  had  no  use  for  Chris¬ 
tian  ideas  or  terms.  Then  it  was  I  left  the  pulpit  for 
the  public  platform,  and  gave  experimental  lectures 
throughout  these  United  States,  demonstrating  the 
truth  of  this  theory  of  self-induction.  During  this  time 
my  audiences,  in  comparison  with  Methodism,  were  in¬ 
creased  a  hundred-fold,  and  the  “conversions”  by  the 
miracles  of  power  in  my  audiences  were  increased  in 
their  marvellous  characteristics  a  thousand-fold.  Nor 


HUMAN  SELFHOOD. 


5 


were  they  performed  merely  by  my  own  volition,  as  I 
constantly  informed  my  audiences.  And  while  the 
“  Boston  Chronotype  ”  (Elizur  Wright,  editor)  declared 
that  I  had  performed  far  greater  wonders  on  my  public 
platform,  and  without  any  visible  means,  than  any  other 
lecturer  ever  did  in  the  use  of  “ means;”  still,  as  I 
ignored  the  notion  of  Jesus  and  of  Mesmer  in  regard  to 
the  human  “will,”  the  wonder  of  the  multitude  was 
increased  the  more  on  this  account. 

Here,  perhaps,  it  may  be  well  to  lay  before  the  reader 
some  of  the  views  expressed  by  editors,  doctors,  clergy¬ 
men,  and  others,  when  the  announcement  of  this  dis¬ 
covery  was  first  made  in  the  city  of  New  York,  where 
I  then  resided.  The  first  I  remember  was  by  Horace 
Greeley,  who  had  witnessed  some  of  my  “miraculous 
cures  ”  in  New  York,  and  he  requested  me  to  write  out 
for  the  Tribune  of  Feb.  23,  1842,  an  account  of  them. 
In  publishing  them,  he  said  that  the  new  discoveries  in 
hygiene  and  psychology  that  Dr.  Sunderland  had  pro¬ 
posed  to  unfold  were  indeed  of  the  most  astonishing 
character,  and,  substantiated,  would  place  his  theory 
of  ideology  among  the  most  important  of  the  positive 
sciences.  Thus  it  was  editors,  bishops,  the  highest 
officials  in  church  and  state,  witnessed  and  bore  testi¬ 
mony  to  the  genuineness  of  the  phenomena  they  saw 
on  my  platform. 

There  were  always  present  more  or  less  of  the  clergy 
and  the  medical  profession,  and  also  scientific  gentle¬ 
men  well  known  to  the  public,  who  endorsed  what  they 
saw  done,  that  it  could  be  accounted  for  only  by  the 
power  of  faith  in  ideas.  These  phenomena  exceeded 
in  the  marvellous  all  that  were  ever  seen  in  any  “  relig¬ 
ious  revival,”  so  called,  ancient  or  modern. 


6 


IDEOLOGY. 


No  “miracles”  by  the  “Holy  Ghost”  ever  equalled 
the  “  wonders  of  faith  ”  evolved  on  my  platform,  and 
that  so  excited  and  astonished  the  crowds,  that  always 
thronged  the  halls  where  I  lectured.  The  scientific 
“revivals”  I  got  up  in  all  the  cities  and  towns  ex¬ 
ceeded  everything  of  the  marvellous  ever  heard  of  under 
the  preaching  of  Wesley  or  any  of  his  followers.  And 
in  Boston,  where  my  lectures  in  the  old  Masonic  Tem¬ 
ple  were  continued  for  sixty-four  nights  in  succession, 
(1849),  no  “revivals”  of  the  Methodist  stamp  could 
ever  be  got  up  there  for  twenty-five  years  afterwards, 
until  a  new  generation  had  grown  up  for  Superstition 
to  prey  upon. 

The  following  testimony,  as  will  be  seen,  contains 
the  names  of  doctors  of  the  highest  distinction  in  the 
city  of  New  York,  besides  clergymen;  for  a  bishop 
(Brownell),  and  clergymen  of  all  denominations,  en¬ 
dorsed  the  genuineness  of  the  phenomena  in  my  public 
lectures,  by  which  I  proved  the  truth  of  my  theory  of 
faith  and  self-induction  : — 

“The  subscribers  have  witnessed' numerous  psychological 
experiments  by  Dr.  LaRoy  Sunderland,  by  which  the  mental 
exercises  of  the  patient,  a  blind  lady,  were  brought  on  and 
removed  in  a  few  seconds  of  time ;  such  as  laughing ,  singing , 
and  the  states  of  the  mind  resembling  madness ,  monomania , 
and  insanity. 

DANIEL  M.  PEIXETTO,  M.  D., 

Pres,  of  the  New  York  Medical  Society. 

DR.  HENRY  H.  SHERWOOD. 

O.  S.  FOWLER,  Phrenologist. 

PROF.  ELIZUR  WRIGHT. 

REV.  J.  H.  MARTIN. 

REV.  ISAAC  COVERT. 


New  York,  March  2,  1842.” 


HUMAN  SELFHOOD. 


7 


It  was  common  for  full  reports  to  be  made  of  my 
lectures,  and  a  synopsis  of  such  reports  will  be  found 
in  my  last  work  on  “The  Trance.”  It  was  common, 
also,  for  my  audiences  to  organize,  and  pass  resolutions 
of  approval,  of  which  the  following  are  specimens.  I 
quote* first  from  the  “Philadelphia  Sun”  of  March  io, 
1847:— 

“  At  the  close  of  Dr.  LaRoy  Sunderland’s  lectures  in  Odd 
Fellows’  Hall,  last  evening,  the  audience  was  organized  by 
the  appointment  of  John  Evans,  Chairman ,  and  G.  W.  Dun¬ 
can,  Secretary ,  when  the  following  resolutions  were  unani¬ 
mously  adopted : — 

“  Resolved,  That  we,  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  have  been 
highly  amused,  and,  we  hope,  benefited  morally,  and  intel¬ 
lectually  improved,  by  attending  Dr.  Sunderland’s  experi¬ 
mental  lectures  on  mental  science  ;  and  we  do  hereby  express 
our  gratitude  for  the  intellectual  entertainment  they  have 
afforded  us. 

“That,  in  parting  with  Dr.  Sunderland,  we  feel  the  loss  of 
one  who  has  endeared  himself  to  us,  not  only  as  a  most  cour¬ 
teous  and  gentlemanly  lecturer,  but  as  one  having  the  most 
profound  knowledge  of  the  human  mind  of  any  or  all  that 
have  appeared  amongst  us ;  and  his  method  of  self-induction 
in  his  audiences  precludes  the  possibility  of  collusion,  as  the 
subjects  evincing  the  phenomena  being  our  friends,  acquaint¬ 
ances,  and  relations,  is  to  us,  and  it  should  be  to  all,  a  suffi¬ 
cient  guarantee  for  the  truth  of  his  theory,  and  the  most 
wonderful  mental  phenomena  they  illustrate. 

“That  the  common  courtesy  due  to  a  stranger  who  has 
given  to  us  such  satisfactory  proof  as  to  the  law  of  self-induc¬ 
tion  in  his  numerous  lectures  to  the  dentists,  the  surgeons, 
the  editors,  and  all  scientific  gentlemen  who  have  been  freely 
and  especially  invited  upon  his  platform  for  that  purpose, 
demands  from  them  something  more  than  a  mere  silent  acqui¬ 
escence  ;  and  that  our  press  has  been  remiss  in  not  reporting 
more  fully  the  wonders  of  his  performances. 

“  That  Dr.  Sunderland,  in  leaving  us,  does  it  not  for  the 
want  of  sufficient  interest  being  manifested  in  the  subject  by 
Philadelphians,  who  from  night  to  night  have  crowded  his 
exhibitions,  and  would  still  do  so  if  he  were  to  continue  with 


8 


IDEOLOGY. 


us,  until  no  hall  within  our  city  limits  would  hold  them ; 
and  Dr.  Sunderland  will  always  find  attentive  audiences, 
open  hands,  and  warm  hearts  to  welcome  him  whenever  he 
can  make  it  convenient  to  visit  us  again.” 

From  year  to  year  resolutions  of  approval  were 
adopted  by  my  audiences  in  Boston,  of  which  I  quote 
the  following  from  “The  Washingtonian,”  of  Jan.  8, 
1848.  Resolutions  adopted  after  the  close  of  a  lec¬ 
ture  given  for  the  benefit  of  the  Washingtonian  Total 
Abstinence  Society  : — 

“  Whereas ,  Having  attended  Dr.  LaRoy  Sunderland’s  lec¬ 
tures  on  his  new  theory  of  self-induction,  and  having  wit¬ 
nessed  his  fearless  and  open  manner  of  calling  for  the 
strictest  scrutiny  of  the  most  intelligent  minds  to  a  series  of 
interesting,  and  to  us  satisfactory,  experiments,  by  which  the 
truth  of  his  new  theory  of  the  mind  has  been  demonstrated, 
therefore  — 

“  Resolved,  As  the  sense  of  this  meeting,  that  the  high 
intellectual  pleasures  which  our  attending  Dr.  Sunderland’s 
lectures  has  afforded  us,  together  with  the  permanent  good 
which  we  believe  has  resulted  from  them,  entitle  him  to  the 
confidence  and  the  gratitude  of  the  multitude  who  have  been 
benefited  by  his  arduous  labors.” 

And  I  quote  next  and  last  from  the  “  Concord  (N.  H.) 
Democrat  and  Freeman,”  of  Feb.  22,  1849:— 

“  At  the  close  of  Dr.  Sunderland’s  lectures,  Dr.  Henry  O. 
Stone  made  some  commendatory  remarks,  and  offered  the 
following  resolutions,  which  were  unanimously  adopted  : — 

“ Resolved, ’  That  the  trance  and  other  phenomena  we  have 
seen  evolved  in  many  of  our  fellow-citizens  of  undoubted 
honesty,  uprightness,  and  morality,  have  demonstrated  to 
every  candid  mind  the  truth  of  Dr.  Sunderland’s  theory  of 
self-induction  and  evolution. 

“  That  we  have  been  entertained,  instructed,  and  improved 
by  Dr.  Sunderland’s  lectures,  so  successfully  illustrated  in 
the  persons  of  individuals  in  whom  we  fully  confide. 

“  That  we  appreciate  the  gentlemanly  conduct  of  Dr.  Sun¬ 
derland  under  the  embarrassing  circumstances  he  has  encoun¬ 
tered  here,  and  that  our  good  wishes  will  hereafter  attend 
him  wherever  he  may  go.” 


HUMAN  SELFHOOD. 


9 


At  the  period  of  1842,  when  these  demonstrations 
first  began  to  attract  public  attention,  as  bearing  upon 
all  previous  notions  of  mental  science,  that  great  dis¬ 
covery  in  physical  science,  which  Faraday  declared  to 
be  the  greatest  which  the  mind  of  man  could  make, 
had  not  been  announced. 

And  if  man  be  admitted  as  the  crown  of  all  that  has 
gone  before ;  if  man  himself  be  the  greatest  miracle, 
and  if  the  human  mind  must  be  supposed  greater  than 
any  or  all  the  discoveries  it  can  make  in  physical  science,. 
—  then  of  how  much  more  importance  must  it  be  for 
this  same  human  mind  to  discover  those  highest  laws 
of  involution  and  evolution  by  which  the  mind,  and  all 
in  the  whole  of  things,  are  controlled  ?  For  these  two 
laws  control  throughout  Nature’s  order,  and  they  domi¬ 
nate  all  the  forces  of  which  it  is  possible  for  us  to  have 
any  knowledge. 

Indeed,  these  laws  of  selfhood  are  seen  in  the  solar 
system.  Keeping  in  view  the  law  of  polarity  and  gravi¬ 
tation  from  the  relation  between  bodies,  it  is  plainly 
manifest  in  the  self-control  of  our  planet  and  of  all 
organized  and  living  organisms,  —  vegetable,  animal , 
and  mental.  We  instinctively  pronounce  that  human 
being  “green  in  youth”  who  is  not  conscious  of  his 
own  selfhood  and  self-control.  It  is  this  inherent  right 
to  selfhood  that  is  invaded ,  and  as  far  as  possible  anni¬ 
hilate  d>  by  ancient  mediumism.  The  -selfhood  of  the 
medium  as  priesthood  is  yielded  up  and  lost ! 

Selfhood  culminates  from  the  nutritive  economy ,  and 
this  accounts  for  it  that  so  often  when  sensational  ap¬ 
peals  are  made  to  credulity  the  vital  system  is  ruptured, \ 
and  the  victim  falls  instantly  dead,  merely  by  an  im¬ 
pression  made  upon  the  mind.  A  power  which  knocks 


10 


IDEOLOGY. 


the  life  out  of  a  man  so  suddenly  is  sufficient  for  induc¬ 
ing  all  the  emotions  of  grief  and  joy  in  any  “  Christian 
experience  ”  !  It  is  to  this  power  and  nothing  else  that 
all  formal  prayers  are  made,  (aspiration  is  common  to 
all).  That  this  power  controls  human  life,  we  know ; 
and  any  greater  power,  purely  mental,  we  do  not  know. 
Believe  as  you  please.  A  volume  might  be  filled  with 
cases  in  support  of  this  theory ;  cases  where  from  a 
sensational  impression  made  upon  the  mind  black  hair 
has  been  suddenly  changed  to  white  ;  cases  called  “  mi¬ 
raculous  cures;”  large  numbers  of  these  are  reported 
every  year.  That  such  cures  do  occur,  I  know.  Nor 
would  it  be  difficult  to  explain,  on  this  theory  of  self- 
induction,  how  they  occur. 

Also  cases  of  surgery  without  pain ,  such  as  I  have 
had  performed  upon  my  public  platform  in  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  Boston,  Bangor,  Cincinnati,  Norfolk,  Va., 
and  the  other  principal  cities  throughout  these  United 
States.  Jesus  never  rendered  a  man  insensible  to  pain 
for  an  hour,  while  his  thigh  was  being  amputated.  These 
surgical  operations  without  pain,  in  a  state  of  trance 
self-induced  “by  faith”  in  me,  or  in  the  law  of  self- 
induction,  exceed  all  the  so-called  miracles  of  past  ages. 

Thus  I  have  removed  tumors,  and  seen  the  molars  of 
many  a  timid  lady  drawn,  without  pain.  No  such  mira¬ 
cles  as  these  are  recorded  among  the  marvels  wrought 
by  Jesus,  or  by  any  one  of  his  followers  to  this  day. 

These  same  laws  of  selfhood  are  the  key  that  unlocks 
a  class  of  mystical  phenomena  that  are  constantly 
occurring  in  our  midst.  While  writing  these  pages  I 
have  seen  numerous  events  described  in  the  papers  of 
the  so-called  “  miraculous  cures,”  and  instances  of  sud¬ 
den  death,  which  are  accounted  for  by  these  laws.  A 


HUMAN  SELFHOOD. 


I  I 

woman,  whose  husband  was  very  sick,  was  asked  into 
his  room  ;  when,  on  entering,  she  perceived  that  he  was 
dying,  whereupon  she  fell  instantly  dead  upon  his 
couch  !  A  mother,  seeing  her  son  had  been  run  away 
with  upon  a  frightened  horse,  fell  suddenly  dead  at 
the  sight !  A  little  girl  in  Maryland  was  frightened  to 
death  by  her  mates  at  play.  And  I  see  a  report  in  the 
“  Chicago  Tribune”  of  seven  hundred  “miraculous 
cures,” — all  of  them  wrought  by  a  small  pebble,  such 
as  we  may  pick  up  in  the  streets.  This  account  is 
written  by  a  “reporter”  of  that  paper,  who  assures  us 
that  he  himself  witnessed  a  number  of 'those  seven  hun¬ 
dred  cases  of  hydrophobia  “cured”  by  that  pebble, 
which  for  this  reason  is  called  a  “  madstone  ;  ”  and  such 
is  the  “faith  ”  exercised  in  its  potency  that  the  patients 
using  it  said,  it  “moves  about  from  place  to  place  ”  on 
their  bodies  ! 

Such  cases  prove  that  the  power  that  cures  —  the 
power  that  excites  hope  and  joy  and  fear  —  is  inside,  not 
outside  as  many  suppose ;  and  the  difference  in  the 
degrees  by  which  different  persons  are  affected  by  sen¬ 
sational  ideas  is  determined  by  the  temperament,  and 
surrounding  circumstances  at  the  time. 

This  law  of  selfhood  accounts  for  it  that  religious 
sects  differ  so  much  in  their  creeds,  yet  each  is  spell¬ 
bound,  and  held  fast  to  his  own  notions  of  things,  from 
youth  down  to  old  age.  The  instinct  for  selfhood  holds 
alike  to  truth  or  error.  Conscience  keeps  the  victim 
to  his  creed,  and  with  a  tenacity  that  endures  perse¬ 
cution,  torture,  and  even  death  itself. 

Moreover,  it  is  in  this  law  of  selfhood  that  we  find 
the  power  by  which  Christians  and  modern  mediums 
become  so  wild  and  bamboozled  by  their  faith,  when 


12 


.  IDEOLOGY. 


they  invest  so  much  in  mystical  phenomena,  or  what  is 
believed  to  be  mystical.  For  whatever  is  really  believed 
becomes  a  reality  to  that  mind.  For  by  the  “faith  ” 
in  the  ridge-pole  the  “prayer  is  answered”  all  the 
same.  No  formal  prayer  ever  rises  higher  than  the 
brains  in  which  the  thought  is  evolved,  —  a  fact  that 
those  who  pray  the  most  will  be  the  last,  however,  to 
find  out.  When  once  completely  victimized  by  “faith  ” 
in  mysticism,  we  do  not  take  to  the  study  of  mental 
science. 

And  now  as  to  that  state  of  things  in  regard  to  the 
human  mind  which  opens  the  door  to  error;  for  I  suppose 
it  would  be  near  the  truth  if  I  were  to  affirm  that  to 
this  day  ignorance  has  been  the  most  dominant  in  the 
control  of  mankind.  This  fact  is  easily  accounted  for 
when  we  consider  that  this  human  selfhood,  when  error 
is  once  admitted,  closes  the  door,  so  that  error  is  not 
suspected ;  and  hence  we  hear  Christians  boasting  that 
“if  they  are  in  error  in  regard  to  their  ‘faith,’  that  they 
do  not  wish  to  find  it  out whereas,  to  an  intelligent, 
candid  mind,  this  very  declaration  of  Christians  is  evi¬ 
dence  that  they  are  deceived. 

The  human  will  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the 
power  of  choice.  It  is  the  expression  of  selfhood  ;  and 
in  the  sense  that  selfhood  is  free  and  independent  of 
all  danger  of  annihilation,  so  is  each  will  independent 
of  all  control  by  the  mere  volition  of  any  other  will. 
It  is  noticeable  that  the  only  sense  in  which  the  human 
will  can  be  truly  said  to  be  free,  is  in  that  sense  that  it 
is  ignored  and  denied  by  Christianity  and  modern  me- 
diumship.  Ignoring  this  true  idea  of  the  human  will 
was  the  germ  of  witchcraft  when  the  Christian  “faith  ” 
invested  the  idea  of  “the  devil  ”  with  power  to  medium- 
ize  people  against  their  own  choice. 


HUMAN  SELFHOOD. 


13 


Moreover,  Christianity  erroneously  teaches  that  “  sin¬ 
ners  ”  are  “converted”  by  the  mere  volition  of  Omni¬ 
science  ;  and  yet  Christianity  cannot  show  it  is  possible 
for  infinite  Intelligence  to  have  any  “choice,”  which 
implies  ignorance  in  the  use  of  means.  Modern  mysti¬ 
cism  is  ba-sed  upon  the  false  idea  that  its  mediums 
lose  their  own  selfhood  “under  spirit  control.” 

And  we  know  of  no  other  ideas  but  the  human.  No 
other  forms  of  thought  have  been,  or  ever  can  be, 
evolved  by  the  human  brain.  This  is  the  true  func¬ 
tion  of  brains,  —  the  evolution  of  human  ideas. 

There  could  scarcely  have  been  perhaps  a  greater 
blunder  by  a  scientific  man  than  that  committed  by 
Max  Muller,  who  affirms  that  the  monotheistic  idea 
was  supernaturally  injected  into  the  mind  of  Abraham, 
the  Jew,  spoken  of  in  the  Bible. 

It  is  true,  that  in  respect  to  vitality ,  instinct ,  nutri¬ 
tion,  nourishment ,  and  growth ,  man  is  an  animal  as  really 
as  the  dog  is  an  animal.  But  in  selfhood,  in  inner¬ 
vation,  in  sensation,  in  conscio?isness  and  the  power  of 
thought,  and  the  evolution  of  ideas,  he  is  more  than 

animal,  but  never  more  than  human. 

c 

It  is  a  great  error  to  imagine  that  ideas  are,  or  can 
be,  transferred  out  of  one  mind  into  another  mind,  as 
you  cram  the  corn  down  the  neck  of  the  goose.  There 
may  be  an  occult  sense  called  intuition,  or  clairvoyance, 
like  that  evinced  by  Mr.  J.  R.  Brown,  the  “mind- 
reader,”  so-called ;  but  this  is  rarely  evinced,  and  gen¬ 
erally  in  cases  of  disease  and  insanity,  —  but  some¬ 
times  manifested  it  may  be  in  phenomena  that  have 
thus  been  erroneously  attributed  to  mere  volition  in  the 
“  mesmeriser.” 

As  the  human  will  is  free  in  its  choice  and  unlimited 


IDEOLOGY. 


14 

in  this  regard,  its  evolution  of  ideas  is  free,  and  each 
mind  for  itself  forms  its  own  ideals  of  all  things.  The 
mental  capacity  depends  upon  the  temperament,  educa¬ 
tion,  and  growth ;  and  the  taste  may  be  determined 
much  in  the  same  way.  The  formation  of  ideals  — 
one’s  own  conception  of  the  highest  and  best — com¬ 
mences  with  the  maturity  that  evolves  ideas.  And  we 
may  see  any  time,  where  there  are  small  children,  how 
plainly  sexhood  distinguishes  in  the  juvenile  ideals  as 
to  whether  it  shall  be  a  knife,  a  hammer,  or  a  rag-baby. 
This  tendency  is  in  human  nature,  and  is  never  out¬ 
grown.  And  yet  how  common  it  is  for  the  mass  to  live 
and  die  without  even  a  consciousness  of  such  a  ten- 
dency  in  the  mind,  nor  the  slightest  suspicion  that, 
from  first  to  last,  all  our  ideals  are  nothing  more  or  less 
than  imaginary!  Our  aspirations,  our  hopes,  and  our 
faith  are  modified  by  our  purely  imaginary  ideals. 

The  child’s  first  ideals  of  goodness,  of  authority,  of 
wisdom,  are  inspired  by  the  parental  relation  ;  nor  does 
he  ever  after  find  any  real  “royal  road”  for  thought. 
But  he  can  imagine  a  thousand  ideas  of  a  “  royal  road,” 
and  of  things  that  are  not  true.  Hence  the  mind  is 
hindered  in  its  growth  by  creeds  of  the  unknown  ;  and 
thus  we  see  how  it  is  that  people  have  always  differed 
so  much  in  their  notions  of  Christianity ;  as  each  mind 
forms  its  ideals  according  to  its  capacity,  education,  and 
facilities  for  conceiving  of  such  things,  of  which  he 
knows  nothing,  but  of  which  he  imagines  the  “priest  ” 
may  know,  because  the  medium  himself  says  so  ! 

The  social  relations  are  the  source  and  the  highest 
authority  for  virtue,  —  goodness,  right  dealing,  and 
truthfulness.  So  of  polarity  and  the  relation  between 
all  physical  bodies.  Whence  comes  the  law  of  gravi- 


HUMAN  SELFHOOD. 


15 


tation,  the  tendency  of  particles  to  a  general  centre  ? 
So  that  this  same  law  dominates  in  all  mineral  bodies, 
as  it  does  in  the  vegetable,  the  animal,  and  the  mental 
worlds.  It  is  in  the  normal  relations  of  persons  and 
things  that  we  find  justice,  freedom,  equality,  the  fra¬ 
ternal,  and  the  highest  good  ;  but  in  numerous  artificial 
relations,  discord  and  evil.  And  when  we  consider 
human  instincts,  appetites,  temperaments,  and  oppor¬ 
tunities,  and  with  these  the  margin  open  to  the  human 
imagination ,  it  need  not  surprise  us  that  a  comparatively 
small  number  of  the  human  race  have  become  duped  by 
their  own  conceptions  of  relations  purely  imaginary. 
As  we  are  held  by  physical  gravitation  to  the  centre, 
so  is  the  mind  held  to  centres  wholly  imaginary.  Chris¬ 
tianity  is  based  upon  the  assumption  that  man  has  the 
power  of  “ faith,”  which  creates  all  “the  evidence”  he 
can  have  as  to  its  claims  or  its  promises. 

Nor  is  there,  nor  can  there  be,  any  “evidence  ”  of  a 
personal  God  except  that  “faith”  which  creates  “the 
evidence”  for  itself  (Heb.  xi.  6).  And  here  bear  in 
mind,  that  as  it  is  “faith”  that  invests  the  miracle- 
worker  with  power ,  so  it  is  “faith”  that  invests  its 
ideal  with  power !  It  creates  an  imaginary  relation 
between  the  mind  and  its  ideal,  such  as  the  filial  re¬ 
poses  in  the  parental.  Thus,  in  sickness  we  trust  in 
our  ideal  method  of  cure,  or  as  near  it  as  we  can  ap¬ 
proach.  Christianity  creates  a  fear  of  an  imaginary 
danger,  and  then  cures  the  wound  which  itself  has 
made.  The  frightened  mind  finds  itself  in  a  suffering 
condition,  and  petitions  its  ideal  of  power  for  “salva¬ 
tion.”  Such,  we  know,  are  the  instinctive  tendencies 
of  the  human  mind,  from  infancy  down  to  the  grave. 
Hence  came  all  ideals  of  goodness,  of  justice,  of  power, 


1 6 


IDEOLOGY. 


wisdom,  and  truthfulness,  and  our  ideals  also  of  evil. 
And  what  has  been  always  overlooked  by  theology,  is 
the  fact  that  as  the  human  mind  certainly  forms  its  own 
ideals  of  things  purely  imaginary,  so  does  the  mind  form 
ideal  relations  between  itself  and  its  imaginary  idols 
or  myths.  The  child  gets  its  first  idea  of  “influence” 
or  power  from  the  relations  of  life. 

The  earth  and  all  things  are  controlled  by  this  law 
of  polarity  or  relation.  It  is  in  this  condition  of  things 
that  error  creeps  in.  Each  mind  forms  for  itself  imag¬ 
inary  myths  and  imaginary  relations  between  itself  and 
them.  “  Saving  faith  ”  invests  the  idea  of  a  myth  with 
power  that  induces  all  the  phenomena  in  “religious 
revivals  ”  and  in  the  Christian  experience,  and  all  those 
emotions  that  the  Christian  attributes  to  his  ideal 
“Holy  Ghost.” 

No  human  mind  has  any  capacity  whatever  for  cog¬ 
nizing  its  own  processes  of  thought.  We  know  nothing 
of  what  is  constantly  going  on  in  our  own  organisms,  — 
of  digestion,  nutrition,  growth,  or  decay.  We  do  not 
know  how  our  ideas  or  our  ideals  are  formed.  We  are 
conscious  of  our  emotions  while  we  know  how  they 
may  have  been  suggested  to  our  mind,  or  what  events 
may  have  been  the  occasion  of  our  grief  or  joy ;  but  we 
do  not  know  what  the  vital,  the  nervous,  or  the  mental 
processes  were  from  which  our  consciousness  of  the  joy 
or  grief  has  come.  How,  then,  can  it  be  possible  for 
the  minds  of  those  victimized  by  error  to  see  the  door 
through  which  error  may  have  come  in  ? 

It  is  a  fatal  mistake  in  Christianity  in  supposing 
faith,  or  any  other  human  emotion,  ever  had,  or  can 
have,  any  independent  action  outside  of  the  mind 
in  which  it  is  exercised.  The  power  that  “faith,”  or 


HUMAN  SELFHOOD. 


17 

that  any  idea,  true  or  false,  has  over  the  nervous  sys¬ 
tem,  I  have  demonstrated  far  beyond  any  proof  given 
by  Christianity.  “No  answers  to  prayer,”  as  they  are 
called*;  no  “miraculous  cures,”  no  “miracles”  by  Jesus, 
could  equal  my  surgical  operations  without  pain.  When 
the  Christian  closes  his  eyes  and  talks  to  his  own  ideal 
of  a  nondescript,  personal  myth,  he  imagines  “some¬ 
body”  outside  of  himself  will  answer.  Whereas,  “faith  ” 
is  not  a  power  outside  of  the  mind,  while  it  may  indeed 
have  the  power  of  life  and  death  over  the  nervous 
system  of  the  one  in  whom  fear  has  been  sensationally 
excited,  as  it  may  have  been  in  the  case  of  Ananias 
and  his  wife  (Acts  v.),  and  as  it  certainly  has  had  in 
other  cases. 

Now,  put  all  these  conditions  together,  and  imagine 
them  as  more  or  less  characteristic  of  all  Sunday-school 
children,  and  of  the  hundreds  of  thousands  who  attend 
“revival”  scenes  and  “camp-meetings”  from  year  to 
year.  All  are  profoundly  ignorant  of  ideology,  alike  the 
preachers  and  the  “maddened  crowds”  excited  by  their 
sensational  appeals.  In  such  a  state  of  things,  it  is 
easy  to  see  what  must  happen.  The  crowd  is  bewil¬ 
dered,  deceived,  and  victimized  with  mental  epidemics. 
Thus,  around  these  imaginary  centres  the  Christians 
of  every  name  love  to  gravitate,  and  while  they  think 
themselves  very  wise,  they  doom  their  neighbors,  who 
are  as  sincere  and  as  honest  as  they  can  be,  to  eternal 
perdition.  To  this  state  of  things  we  should  add  the 
idea  of  an  elongated  arm  that  “faith”  gives  to  those 
who  trust  in  a  Jew  —  that  did  not  die  upon  the  cross 
two  thousand  years  ago,  — an  arm  long  enough  to  reach 
the  north  star.  Or,  if  he  did  die  upon  the  cross,  then 
he  died  in  despair,  supposing  himself  utterly  forsaken 
of  God. 


1 8 


IDEOLOGY. 


In  this  way  it  is  that  good  people  become  hood¬ 
winked  with  mysticism.  Thus  the  human  mind  dis¬ 
covers  its  “royal  road”  to  knowledge,  and  becomes 
warped  under  the  control  of  superstition.  It  grows 
upon  what  it  feeds,  as  the  body  and  the  brain  grow, 
from  which  the  mental  functions  are  evolved.  In  this 
condition  it  is  incapacitated  for  duly  appreciating  sci¬ 
ence,  or  indeed  its  own  attributes  and  selfhood. 

When  I  speak  of  having  experimented  upon  the 
human  mind,  we  must  remember  that  the  mind  is  not 
to  be  measured  by  the  carpenter’s  rule.  It  cannot  be 
weighed  by  the  apothecary.  It  is  not  to  be  subjected 
to  any  chemical  analysis.  And,  in  view  of  the  ample 
opportunities  afforded  me  when  a  “  revival  minister  ” 
for  studying  psychology,  I  have  never  regretted  my 
“experience”  in  that  regard.  During  that  time  I  was 
familiar  with  some  of  the  foremost  ministers,  who 
agreed  with  me  when  I  expressed  my  doubts  as  to  how 
much  “the  Holy  Ghost”  had  to  do  in  producing  the 
spasms  often  witnessed  at  the  camp-meetings.  I  could 
not  fail  in  noticing  that  all  the  marvellous  phenomena 
always  corresponded  with  the  sensational  ideas  and 
appeals  from  the  pulpit.  When  I  experimented  upon 
my  “converts,”  I  found  that  ignoring  Christianity  and 
using  my  own  ideas  the  same  phenomena  appeared ; 
and  never  since  have  I  for  one  moment  doubted  that 
the  human  mind  is  always  controlled  by  ideas, — true 
or  false ,  it  is  the  same.  Each  mind  prefers  ideas  that 
agree  zvith  its  ideals,  real  or  purely  imaginary.  Nor 
is  there  any  way  to  hinder  people  from  talking  to  their 
own  ideas,  as  if  they  had  a  persoiial  identity.  Ignorant 
as  we  all  are  of  our  own  cerebral  and  nervous  processes, 
I  do  not  now  so  much  marvel  when  I  hear  Christians 


HUMAN  SELFHOOD. 


19 


vociferating  their  griefs  and  views  to  their  own  ideals 
in  the  clouds. 

The  human  race  we  know  have  always  been  opposed 
to  all  isms  of  the  unknown.  Humanity  has  never  been 
so  earnest  and  outspoken  in  its  protests  against  Chris¬ 
tian  dogmatism  as  it  is  this  day.  Its  dominant  instincts 
for  the  evolution  of  selfhood  were  never  so  manifest  as 
at  the  present  time ;  and  from  the  beginning,  some  of 
the  wisest  and  the  best  of  men  and  women  have  urged 
numerous  unanswerable  arguments  against  Christianity. 

A  writer,  himself  victimized  by  “modern  medium- 
ism,  ”  has  made  a  labored  effort  against  the  “  God  idea 
in  history.”  But  there  is  no  such  idea  in  history,  ex¬ 
cept  what  has  come  from  the  germ  of  mediumship, 
which  is  the  dominant  idea  throughout  the  Bible. 
Hence,  Moses  (Deut.  v.  5)  says,  “I  was  a  medium  be¬ 
tween  the  Lord  and  you.”  This  medium  was  as  neces¬ 
sary  for  the  information  of  “the  Lord”  as  it  was  for 
the  information  of  the  Jews. 

Two  thousand  years  ago,  so  intensified  had  this 
human  idea  of  mediumship  become  in  Palestine  that 
credulity  and  ignorance  invented  a  “royal  road,”  after 
Jesus  had  died,  for  exalting  his  mediumship ;  and  so  they 
concocted  the  idea  that  he  had  been  “  begotten  by  the 
Holy  Ghost.”  This  emulation  is  characteristic  of  the 
old  “  isms.  ”  Each  boasts  of  the  highest  and  the  best. 

Still,  the  human  family  has  always  conducted  itself 
precisely  as  if  it  had  no  idea  of  any  omniscient  person¬ 
ality  ;  and  whatever  kind  of  a  personal  God  there  may 
be,  it  is  of  no  consequence,  as  he ,  she ,  or  it  is  dependent 
upon  human  brains  for  all  it  knows  of  us,  and  has  al¬ 
ways  to  be  reminded  by  “prayer”  of  anything  it  can 
do  for  us. 


CHAPTER  II. 


EXPERIMENTAL. 

An  experiment  is  an  operation  performed  for  discov¬ 
ering  some  truth  or  the  nature  and  laws  of  some  sub¬ 
stance,  or  to  illustrate  the  principles  of  science.  Prof. 
E.  L.  Youmans  has  truly  stated,  that  the  most  impor¬ 
tant  event  in  physical  science  was  in  advancing  from 
the  theoretical ,  speculative  methods  of  past  ages  to  the 
experimental  period.  The  ancients  were  prevented 
by  a  false  intellectual  procedure  from  creating  science. 
They  believed  they  could  solve  all  the  problems  of 
the  universe  by  thought  alone.  But  the  moderns 
have  found  that  for  this  purpose  meditation  is  futile, 
unless  accompanied  by  observation  and  experiment. 
Modern  science,  therefore,  took  its  rise  in  a  change  of 
method ,  and  the  adoption  of  the  principle  that  the  dis¬ 
covery  of  physical  truth  consists  not  in  its  mere  logical 
but  in  its  experimental  establishment.  —  Cons,  and 
Cor.  of  Forces,  p.  16. 

This  is  true.  And,  if  true  in  regard  to  chemistry 
and  physical  science,  how  much  more  may  it  not  be 
applicable  to  Psychology  and  the  ideas  by  which  the 
human  mind  is  controlled?  Yet  who  of  all  the  writers 
on  the  human  mind  can  be  named  that  ever  thought 
of  an  experiment  purely  mental  ?  In  Watts  on  “  The 
Mind,”  in  Locke  on  the  “Human  Understanding.” 


(20) 


EXPERIMENTAL. 


21 


and  in  Mason  on  “  Self-Knowledge,”  there  is  not  a 
syllable  of  any  experiment  performed  by  ideas  upon  the 
human  mind  ever  thought  of.  Who  of  the  clergy  (till 
the  author  himself,  then  a  clergyman,  in  1836),  from 
the  days  of  Jesus  to  the  present  time,  —  who  and  what 
was  the  name  of  that  theologian  who  ever  performed 
upon  the  human  mind  an  experiment  purely  mental  ?  — 
an  experiment  with  ideas,  for  testing  the  power  that 
faith  in  a  myth  has  over  the  human  mind  ?  What 
Christian,  of  all  the  ages  past,  ever  experimented  upon 
the  human  soul  with  ideas,  for  the  purpose  of  finding 
out  as  to  whether  the  proximate  power  with  which 
Jesus  is  said  to  have  cured  the  disease  mentioned  in 
Matt.  ix.  2,  was  in  the  “will  ”  of  Jesus  or  in  the  sick 
man’s  “faith,”  and  the  law  of  self-induction  and  self- 
healing  which  inheres  alike  in  every  human  mind  ? 
What  D.  D.,  or  what  “revival  ”  propagandist,  could  you 
name,  who,  before  drilling  the  organs  of  credulity  and 
fear  with  his  dogmatism  of  the  unknown,  experimented 
with  ideas  by  which  he  could  find  out  if  there  was  any 
difference  in  the  faith  which  holds  still  the  nerves 
under  the  surgeon’s  knife  (as  I  have  often  done)  and 
faith  in  a  myth  ? 

A  scientific  experiment  takes  in  all  the  factors,  all 
the  forces,  that  evolve  the  phenomena.  Nothing  is 
taken  for  granted  ;  no  element  is  omitted.  As  science 
is  a  classification  of  ideas,  not  merely  of  all  that  is 
known  but  of  all  there  is  to  be  known ,  it  is  easy  to  see 
how  inconsistent  and  absurd  it  is  to  apply  the  term 
Christian  to  science  !  Christianity  has  always  ignored 
science  and  human  reason,  as  “faith  ”  always  does ;  as 
“  saving  faith  ”  is  the  substitute  for  science,  human 
reason,  and  knowledge. 


22 


IDEOLOGY. 


During  my  scientific  lectures,  a  large  number  of 
Christians  “  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,”  and  clergy¬ 
men  of  all  the  grades  in  the  different  sects  and 
churches,  became  entranced  and  insensible  to  pain 
during  surgical  operations  performed  upon  them  ;  and 
I  am  sure  that  each  one  of  these  “  converted  ”  and 
Christian  people  at  those  times  invested  me  with  far 
more  power  than  they  ever  did  any  idea  that  it  was 
possible  for  them  to  form  of  a  myth  above  the  sky. 
They  certainly  had  more  faith  in  a  man  they  could  see 
than  they  could  have  in  “the  unseen”  !  Moreover,  no 
“  holy  priest  ”  can  refer  to  any  case  of  surgery  to  be 
compared  with  the  hundreds  that  were  witnessed  upon 
my  public  platform  !  It  is  said  that  “  seeing  is  believ¬ 
ing  ;  ”  and,  although  perhaps  this  may  not  always  be 
true,  yet  when  you  see  something  has  been  said  to  a 
nervous,  timid  lady  that  induces  her  to  shut  her  eyes 
and  sit  perfectly  still,  without  the  movement  of  a 
muscle,  while  the  surgeon’s  scalpel  is  thrust  into  her 
nervous  system,  I  am  sure  that  you  behold  a  greater 
“wonder”  than  anything  truly  done  by  Jesus  or  his 
priests. 

Now  it  will  be  readily  seen  by  these  experiments  how 
all  the  so-called  “  miraculous  cures  ”  came  about,  and 
that  one  cure  is  as  really  “  miraculous  ”  as  another  ;  as 
evolution  and  self-induction  include  and  combine  both 
the  instinctive,  animal,  nutritive  system,  and  this  self¬ 
controlling  the  human  mind  by  ideas,  these  two  factors 
are  united  in  manhood,  and  reciprocal  in  their  action. 
Thus  it  is  that  man,  in  his  personality,  partakes  of  this 
characteristic  duality  in  his  nature,  which  I  have  else¬ 
where  shown  to  be  in  the  whole  of  things.  Hence  it  is 
he  has  to  exist  a  series  of  years  before  he  is  conscious 


EXPERIMENTAL. 


23 


of  ideas  or  a  living  body,  and  still  longer  before  he  dis¬ 
covers  that  he  has  a  mind  and  the  power  of  thought, 
and  longer  still  before  he  finds  out  the  living  nutritive 
functions,  whence  his  existence  is  derived.  Nor  is  it 
difficult  to  suppose  that  by  far  the  larger  part  of  the 
race  now  alive,  and  of  all,  indeed,  that  have  lived  and 
died,  had  no  just  estimate  of  what  is  stated  below. 


FACTORS  IN  SELFHOOD. 


The  Body. — The  Nutri¬ 
tive  Economy,  limited  by 
the  animal  instincts.  It  is 
the  primary  source  of  growth, 
health,  and  happiness.  Its 
interruption  is  sin,  disease, 
pain,  and  death.  The  heal¬ 
ing,  curative  power  is  in  the 
arterial  blood  and  perfect 
nutrition.  Assisted  by  ap¬ 
propriate  ideas  in  the  habits 
of  living,  both  the  mind  and 
the  body  are  healed  and 
cured. 


The  Mind.  —  Self-control¬ 
ling  and  unlimited  in  its  evo¬ 
lution  of  ideas,  true  or  false. 
Always  controlled  by  its  own 
ideas.  By  sensational  ideas 
it  is  diverted  from  the  sense 
of  pain,  entranced,  or  med- 
iumised.  In  evolution  and 
self-induction  is  the  greatest 
power  we  know.  By  ideas 
disease  is  caused  or  cured. 
This  law  is  supreme  in  each 
mind  alike  ;  and,  unduly  ex¬ 
cited,  sudden  death  follows. 


Here  I  repeat,  what  I  have  elsewhere  stated,  that  the 
human  mind  never  takes  cognizance  of  its  own  pro¬ 
cesses.  It  never  has  knowledge  of  its  own  selfhood  in 
any  of  its  emotions,  such  as  fear ,  hope,  joy,  faith,  or  de¬ 
spair  ;  and  this  accounts  for  the  fact  that  it  is  so  com¬ 
mon  for  people  to  attribute  the  changes  of  which  they 
are  conscious  to  a  myth,  or,  as  in  “Mesmerism,”  to  the 
mere  “will”  of  another;  and,  worse  yet,  in  modern 
mediumism,  to  the  “will  ”  of  one  now  dead!  Whereas, 


24 


IDEOLOGY. 


the  power  of  choice  in  the  human  mind  can  have  no 
influence  merely  by  volition,  or  anything  outside  of  the 
brain  in  which  that  choice  is  made.  If  there  be  any 
exception  to  this,  it  may  be  found,  perhaps,  in  the  re¬ 
sults  reported  of  the  adepts  in  India,  and  what  are 
called  the  “  occult  forces ;  ”  and  these,  I  suppose,  to  be 
brought  about  (supposing  that  they  really  occur)  by  the 
conjugation  of  ideas.  Humanity  itself  comes  from  the 
conjugation  of  ideas.  Nor  do  I  entertain  any  doubt 
but  that,  when  the  “  conditions  are  favorable,”  ideas 
may  be  so  conjugated  in  the  minds  of  two  parties  that 
are  far  apart  that  they  may  control  physical  bodies.  It 
is  certain  that  an  idea  in  the  maternal  mind  disinte¬ 
grates,  creates ,  and  materializes  colors  and  forms  in  the 
foetus  ;  and  I  have  witnessed  cases  where  these  “  moth¬ 
ers’  marks  ”  have  been  removed  —  that  is,  they  certainly 
disappeared  —  after  the  father  had  passed  his  hand  over 
them  a  few  times  for  this  purpose. 

In  the  foregoing  account,  we  have  what  perhaps  we 
may  call  the  Anatomy  of  Selfhood  and  the  theory  of 
Ideology.  This  term  seems  to  me  the  most  appropriate 
for  designating  the  experiments  by  which  its  truthful¬ 
ness  has  been  demonstrated.  My  experiments,  while 
they  were  psychological,  were  physical,  nutritive,  and 
surgical.  During  my  experimental  lectures  for  business 
purposes,  I  adopted  “  Pathetism  ”  as  a  term  for  desig¬ 
nating  them.  This  was  suggested  to  me  by  the  late 
Rev.  Prof.  George  Bush,  of  New  York,  where  I  then 
resided,  as  he  was  deeply  interested  in  my  investiga¬ 
tions,  and  was  himself  one  of  the  very  first  persons 
upon  whom  my  experiments  were  performed.  It  was, 
perhaps,  for  the  reason  that  I  had  for  twenty  years 
previously  been  recognized  as  a  clergyman,  that  in  all 


EXPERIMENTAL. 


25 


my  scientific  lectures  throughout  the  country  I  found 
ministers  of  the  gospel  and  Christians  of  all  classes 
ready  to  yield  me  assistance. 

And  now  — 

“  Good  master  doctor, 

And  you  dear  doctor,  and  the  third  sweet  doctor, 

And  precious  master  apothecary,  I  do  pray  ye,” 

what  real  difference  can  it  make  if  the  “prayer”  be 
heard  and  the  disease  cured  ?  No  matter  what  you  call 
it  !  and  if  I  do  not  offend  the  lancet  or  the  pill-box  in 
finding  the  wound  healed  by  nutrition,  why  should 
Christians  object  to  my  finding  the  greatest  power  of 
which  it  is  possible  for  the  mind  to  have  any  knowledge 
at  all  in  ideas  and  the  laws  of  self-induction  and  evolu¬ 
tion  ?  Why  should  a  Jew,  a  Hindoo,  a  Mohammedan, 
a  Christian,  a  Mormon,  a  Spiritualist,  take  umbrage  if 
I  find  by  experiment  the  law  of  self-induction  inherent 
in  mind,  —  the  Supreme  Power,  and  the  greatest  force 
in  ideas  the  mind  is  ever  conscious  of,  and  by  which 
all  petitions  to  the  outside,  the  unknown,  are  answered, 
if  answered  at  all  ?  I  know  what  the  “power  of  faith  ” 
is  by  which  the  disease  is  cured,  and  the  prayer  is 
heard ;  and  I  know,  equally  well,  how  very  slow  the 
race  have  been  in  arriving  at  the  conviction  that  fast¬ 
ened  itself  upon  my  mind  fifty  years  ago, — that  Nature’s 
order  is  constant.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  chance. 
All  is  the  sequence  of  cause  and  effect  in  a  chain,  no 
link  of  which  has  or  ever  will  be  broken. 


CHAPTER  III. 


MENTAL  ANESTHESIA  SELF-INDUCED. 

One  case  of  the  utter  unconsciousness  of  pain ,  self-in¬ 
duced  by  ideas  in  the  patient’s  own  mind,  —  and  what 
then  ?  Why,  then ,  it  follows  that  a  dual  law  of  involu¬ 
tion  and  evolution  inheres  in  each  human  mind,  no 
matter  by  what  terms  it  may  be  called,  —  whether 
“  Mesmerism,”  “  Spiritualism,”  “Christianity,”  “  Mor- 
monism,”  “God,”  “Jesus,”  the  “Devil,”  or  the  “Holy 
Ghost.”  It  is  manifested  in  instinctive  phenomena  in 
selfhood,  in  self-growth,  the  self-healing  of  wounds,  and 
in  all  vital  and  mental  phenomena,  as  in  life  and  death  ; 
and  it  is  a  noteworthy  fact  how  very  nearly  death 
ensues  when  a  certain  balance  is  destroyed  between 
involution  and  evolution.  Thus,  how  common  it  has 
always  been  to  find  cases  reported  of  persons  instantly 
killed  by  fear ,  faith ,  and  joy  ! 

A  recent  No.  of  the  “Medical  Press”  contains  the 
case  of  a  man  suddenly  killed  by  falsely  supposing  that 
he  had  been  bitten  by  a  snake  !  The  patient,  awakened 
in  his  sleep  by  something  creeping  over  his  naked  legs, 
immediately  jumped  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  a 
cobra,  went  into  a  collapse  and  died,  though  it  was  dis¬ 
covered,  even  before  death,  that  the  supposed  cobra 
was  a  harmless  lizard. 

(2G) 


ANAESTHESIA. 


27 


Hall’s  “Journal  of  Health”  truly  affirms  that  “the 
idea  of  a  disease  will  often  produce  that  disease.  This 
we  see  effected  when  the  mind  is  intensely  concen¬ 
trated  upon  the  disease  of  another.  It  is  found  in  the 
hospital  that  surgeons  and  physicians  who  make  a 
specialty  of  a  certain  disease  are  liable  to  die  of  it 
themselves,  and  the  mental  power  is  so  great  that 
sometimes  people  die  of  diseases  which  they  have  only 
in  imagination.  We  have  seen  a  person  sea-sick  in  an¬ 
ticipation  of  a  voyage  before  reaching  the  vessel. 

I  have  myself  witnessed  cases  of  sea-sickness  in  par¬ 
ties  before  they  went  on  shipboard,  when  bound  to  the 
camp-meeting  picnics  on  Cape  Cod  !  —  thus  presenting 
the  fact  that  the  same  power  to  which  their  prayers 
were  to  be  offered  at  the  camp-meeting  had  made  them 
sea-sick  before  they  had  started  for  the  meeting  !  Dr. 
Hall  declares  that  he  has  known  a  person  to  die  of 
supposed  cancer  in  the  stomach  when  he  had  no  cancer 
or  any  other  mortal  disease.  A  blindfolded  man,  slightly 
pricked  in  the  arm,  has  fainted  and  died  from  believing 
that  he  was  bleeding  to  death.  Therefore  well  persons, 
to  remain  well,  should  be  cheerful  and  happy,  and  sick 
persons  should  have  their  attention  drawn  as  much  as 
possible  from  themselves.  It  is  by  their  faith  men 
are  saved,  and  it  is  by  their  faith  men  die.  If  one  wills 
not  to  die,  he  can  often  live  in  spite  of  disease ;  and  .if 
he  has  little  or  no  attachment  for  life,  he  will  slip  away 
as  easily  as  a  child  will  fall  asleep. 

We  should  constantly  bear  in  mind  that  the  “  will  ” 
and  “faith”  have  no  power  outside  of  the  brains  in 
which  the  ideas  are  evolved  ;  and  it  is  to  the  highest 
and  the  best  hygienic  purposes  when  we  can  concen¬ 
trate  our  “  faith  ”  and  our  volitions  upon  ourselves,  for 


28 


IDEOLOGY. 


our  own  cure.  I  know  whereof  I  affirm,  having  pro¬ 
tracted  my  own  life,  I  may  say,  forty  years  at  least,  — 
at  any  rate,  until  all  my  family  and  former  friends  are 
in  their  graves.  The  problem  is  proved  by  one  suc¬ 
cessful  experiment ;  and  one  case  (given  in  my  “  Theory 
of  Nutrition”)  is  so  remarkable  that  I  refer  to  it  here; 
showing,  as  it  does  beyond  all  doubt,  that  the  Nutri¬ 
tive  Economy  chooses  often  its  own  methods  of  cure. 
It  was  the  very  wonderful  case  of  Mr.  Cunningham, 
who  took  not  a  mouthful  of  food,  though  his  stomach 
and  body  were  fed  and  nourished  for  three  months  ex¬ 
clusively  through  his  pores.  During  all  this  time  there 
was  no  movement  of  the  bowels,  while  the  patient  ac¬ 
tually  gained  thirteen  pounds  in  weight,  and  his  fistula 
in  ano  was  healed.  Certainly  such  facts  as  these  prove 
the  function  of  nutrition  in  the  animal  economy,  and 
that  it  is  not  only  carried  on  through  the  stomach  and 
lungs,  but  also  through  the  -external  surfaces,  or  the 
skin,  even  when  food  is  withheld  entirely  from  passing 
into  the  stomach  and  bowels !  This  idea  of  feeding 
through  the  pores  exclusively  is  certainly  not  very 
common  among  invalids.  Why,  poor  sufferers,  they 
hear  a  suggestion  about  any  “restrictions”  imposed 
upon  the  habits  of  living  with  a  sigh  ;  but  what  will  be 
said  when  told  that  in  some  cases  the  patient  is  re¬ 
quired  to  give  up  eating  entirely ,  while  being  dieted 
through  the  skin ,  and  that  while  he  does  so  he  may  be 
increased  in  weight  ?  His  sores  are  healed,  and  he  is 
completely  cured.  But  now  I  ask  attention  to  the  fol¬ 
lowing  cases,  demonstrating  this  dual  law  in  selfhood 
of  involution  and  evolution.  Yet  here  I  have  to  pause  ; 
for,  were  I  to  undertake  to  give  one  in  a  hundred  of  the 
cases  at  my  command  under  this  head,  they  would  fill  a 


ANAESTHESIA. 


29 


volume.  Nor  would  it  be  possible  for  me  to  notice  in 
detail  my  own  cases  of  surgical  operations  without  pain, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  similar  cases  that  have  occurred 
since  my  theory  of  self-induction  was  announced,  in 
England,  Germany,  Italy,  and  France.  Dr.  Esdale  has 
reported  many  cases  in  India  among  the  Hindoos. 
While  I  do  not  assume  that  this  assistance  of  complete 
self-induction  is  equally  available  in  all  cases,  I  do 
affirm  that  these  cases  demonstrate  the  truthfulness  of 
my  theory  of  nutrition,  and  they  are  without  a  parallel 
in  the  history  of  anaesthetics  and  surgery. 

1.  In  the  following  cases  there  were  no  accidents,  nor 
ill-effects  even,  to  the  persons  on  whom  the  gases  were 
used. 

2.  They  were  performed  on  a  public  platform,  and 
witnessed  by  gentlemen  of  the  press,  the  medical  pro¬ 
fession,  and  the  clergy,  freely, —  for  all  such  were  always 
invited  upon  my  platform  ;  and  they  were  witnessed 
also  by  uncounted  thousands  of  people  in  the  large 
cities  all  over  these  United  States  for  a  series  of  years. 
Hence  it  would  not  be  possible  to  give  here  all  my 
cases  of  painless  surgical  operations ;  and  I  must  beg 
to  refer  the  reader  to  my  book  on  “The  Trance,”  and 
here  name  only  a  few  as  examples. 

3.  These  cases  cannot  but  be  admitted  as  unparal¬ 
leled,  when  it  is  considered  that  self-induction,  sug¬ 
gested  by  the  lecturer,  occurred  in  a  large  crowd  of 
people,  from  one  to  fifty  or  a  hundred  cases,  in  one 
course  of  lectures.  Moreover,  enhancement  in  some 
cases  came  on  by  proxy ,  so  that,  by  the  laws  of  sympa¬ 
thetic  imitation ,  one  entranced  person  entranced  an¬ 
other  and  another,  until  a  score  or  a  hundred  have 
become  “  influenced  ”  and  entranced  in  the  same  way. 


30 


IDEOLOGY. 


4.  Again  :  My  painless  surgical  operations  were  per¬ 
formed  in  public,  where  nervous  people  do  not  like  to 
be  criticised ;  and,  under  such  circumstances,  the  real¬ 
ity  and  depth  of  the  trance  is  more  fully  shown,  as, 
whatever  dissimulations  might  be  practised  by  an  indi¬ 
vidual  in  private,  —  in  public  a  large  number  of 
women  and  timid  men  would  not  be  very  likely  to 
feign  that  indifference  to  pain  which  multitudes  of 
people  have  so  often  evinced  in  my  public  lectures. 

At  my  suggestion  merely,  surgeons  have  become  en¬ 
tranced,  as  were  the  patients  on  whom  they  operated. 
Nor  am  I  aware  that  history  gives  any  account  of  either 
the  phenomena  of  “revivals,”  or  the  results  of  chloro¬ 
form,  or  the  wonders  of  modern  mediumship,  that  equal 
the  cases  here  stated.  Who  ever  heard  of  a  surgeon 
having  himself  taken  the  chloroform  with  the  patient 
at  the  same  moment  when  the  surgical  operation  was 
to  be  performed  ?  But  ideology  has  administered  the 
“  human  chloroform  ”  both  to  the  surgeon  and  the 
patient  at  one  and  the  same  time  ;  so  that  both  were 
“  under  the  influence,”  and  in  a  real  state  of  trance, 
when  the  former  applied  his  lance  and  his  forceps  suc¬ 
cessfully  in  the  extraction  of  the  teeth  of  the  latter. 
Nor  is  this  all,  for  — 

Ideology  controls  the  nerves  of  women  and  timid 
men,  while  having  their  teeth  extracted,  in  the  pres¬ 
ence  of  thousands  of'  people,  and  does  this  to  such  a 
marvellous  extent  as  to  enable  these  fearful  persons, 
during  the  whole  operation,  to  hold  lighted  candles  in 
each  hand,  by  which  the  surgeon  sees  to  draw  their 
teeth  ;  and,  during  the  operation,  there  is  no  motion 
whatever  of  the  candles,  from  which  it  becomes  suffi¬ 
ciently  manifest  that  there  was  in  the  entranced  patient 
no  fear,  no  consciousness  of  pain. 


I 


31 


ANAESTHESIA. 

Case  i.  —  Tumor  removed  without  pain,  Mrs.  Anne 
F.  Mann,  Milford,  Mass.,  August  2,  1842.  It  was  5^ 
inches  in  length,  and  5  inches  broad.  It  was  cut  from 
her  shoulder,  in  a  trance,  without  pain,  by  Dr.  Fisk, 
assisted  by  L.  N.  Fowler,  the  Phrenologist.  Reported 
in  the  author’s  “  Magnet,”  vol.  i.  p.  73. 

Case  2.  —  A  wen  removed  by  the  scalpel,  without 
pain,  in  a  state  of  trance  ;  Miss  Hannah  Eyres,  eighteen 
years  of  age,  Alton,  Ill.,  August  14,  1843.  Cut  from 
her  left  cheek,  in  contact  with  the  ear,  by  Dr.  B.  F. 
Edwards.  It  was  1^  inches  one  way,  and  1  inch  and  f 
the  other.  Had  been  growing  since  she  was  two  years 
old.  —  Magnet ,  vol.  ii.  p.  1 8 1 . 

Case  3.  —  The  thigh  amputated,  in  a  state  of  trance, 
without  any  sense  of  pain  ;  Luther  Cary,  a  sailor,  aged 
forty,  Bangor,  Me.,  February  24,  1884.  Three  surgeons 
were  present,  one  of  whom  held  his  pulse,  and  declared 
that  there  had  been  no  change  in  it.  The  operation 
was  by  Dr.  H.  Rich,  assisted  by  Dr.  Denn. — Magnet , 
vol.  ii.  p.  233. 

I  will  also  here  narrate  a  circumstance  that  followed 
one  year  after  this  amputation,  as  it  confirms  the  theory 
advocated  in  these  pages,  —  that  persons  entranced 
and  in  a  state  of  anaesthesia  are  controlled  by  their 
own  ideas ;  and  what,  for  the  time,  they  do  not  wish  to 
feel  or  remember  they  forget.  The  mind  is  diverted 
from  a  sense  of  pain.  One  year  after  this  amputation 
I  gave  another  course  of  lectures  on  Idealogy,  in  Ban¬ 
gor,  Me. ;  and  one  evening  this  same  Mr.  Cary  came 
hobbling  along  upon  his  wooden  leg.  I  did  not  know 
that  he  was  in  my  hall  until  he  had  got  upon  my  plat¬ 
form.  At  the  close,  I  suggested  to  Mr.  Cary  that  he 
should  give  my  audience  an  account  of  that  amputa- 


32 


IDEOLOGY. 


tion.  Whereupon  he  arose,  and,  stamping  his  artificial 
leg  upon  the  floor,  he  gave  a  consecutive  and  accurate 
account  of  all  that  had  been  said  and  done  at  that  sur¬ 
gical  operation  a  year  before,  and  from  the  pain  of 
which  he  still  declared  that  his  mind  had  been  so 
strangely  diverted  in  some  way  that  he  could  not  ex¬ 
plain.  To  this  I  may  add  that  among  the  more  than 
five  hundred  patients  I  have  had  in  a  state  of  mental 
anaesthesia,  self-induced,  I  never  found  one  that  did 
not  give  me  a  similar  account  to  that  of  Mr.  Cary’s. 

Case  4.  —  A  molar  drawn  without  pain.  In  1853, 
in  Boston,  Mrs.  H.  Ryan  engaged  me  to  meet  her  at 
the  office  of  Dr.  Rogers,  for  the  purpose  of  entrancing 
her,  when  her  tooth  was  to  be  drawn.  On  my  way 
thither  I  got  a  paper  to  read,  and,  on  entering  the  den¬ 
tist’s  office,  I  noticed  that  Mrs.  R.  had  seated  herself 
in  the  operating-chair,  and  so  I  went  behind  it  and 
continued  reading  the  paper,  until  I  saw  that  she  had 
passed  into  the  state  of  anaesthesia,  when  her  tooth 
was  drawn.  Dr.  R.  told  me  he  had  recently  been 
called  to  a  sick  man  to  draw  one  of  his  molars.  He 
took  his  inhaler  with  him,  and  when  he  came  to  apply 
it  he  found  that  he  had  no  gas.  Nevertheless,  the 
man  was  rendered  insensible,  and  his  tooth  was  drawn 
without  pain,  and  he  pronounced  the  gas  first-rate  ! 

Case  5.  —  “  On  Thursday  evening  last  Mr.  Sunderland  (by 
some  mysterious  power  of  his  own)  rendered  a  young  lady  (Miss 
Eliza  Gerry)  insensible  while  Dr.  Dillingham  extracted  one 
of  her  molars,  without  the  least  sympto7n  of  pain  !  She  after¬ 
wards  affirmed  herself  that  she  did  not  know  when  the  tooth 
was  drawn.”  —  Essex  Co.  Whig ,  Feb.  3,  1844. 

Case  6.  —  “  Capt.  Luce  declared  that  his  sufferings  here¬ 
tofore  had  been  excruciating  in  the  extreme  whenever  he  had 
had  a  tooth  drawn  ;  but  this  one,  under  Mr.  Sunderland’s 


ANAESTHESIA. 


33 


new  process,  had  produced  no  pain  ;  the  operation  seemed  to 
him  like  a  pleasant  dream.”  —  New  Bedford  Evening  Bul¬ 
letin ,  Nov.  2 3,  1844. 

Case  7.  —  “  Mr.  Sunderland  produced  a  most  astonishing 
result  upon  a  lady  in  this  town  last  Thursday  evening;  and 
the  testimony  of  the  doctors  present,  Messrs.  Ruggles  and 
West,  was  that  Mr.  Sunderland  wielded  an  influence  over 
the  nervous  system,  compared  to  which  the  strongest  opiates 
were  powerless.  While  the  doctor  was  extracting  one  of  her 
molar  teeth,  the  lady  was  as  stiff  and  unconscious  as  a 
corpse.”  —  Nantucket  Telegraph ,  April  5,  1845. 

Case  8.  —  “  Mr.  Sunderland  put  his  ‘  spelE  upon  the  lady, 
while  Dr.  Payne  took  out  her  tooth.  There  was  not  the 
slightest  contraction  of  a  muscle,  and  to  all  appearance  there 
was  certainly  no  consciousness  of  pain.” —  Troy  (N.  K)  Tost, 
Sept.  12,  1845. 

Case  9.  —  “  Mr.  Sunderland  did  something  to  the  lady 
(what  it  was  we  do  not  know),  for  while  her  tooth  was  drawn, 
there  was  not  the  slightest  manifestation  of  consciousness, 
although  Mrs.  Carr  is  known  to  be  one  of  the  most  timid  in 
her  natural  state,  so  much  so  as  to  be  thrown  into  spasms 
whenever  the  attempt  has  been  made  heretofore  to  extract 
one  of  her  teeth.” —  Troy  (N.  Y.)  Budget,  Sept.  23,  1845. 

Cask  10.  — •  “  A  lady  of  this  town,  member  in  good  stand¬ 
ing  in  the  Episcopal  Church,  was,  on  Thursday  evening  last, 
rendered  insensible  to  pain  by  Mr.  Sunderland,  while  Dr.  Per¬ 
kins  drew  one  of  her  teeth.  During  the  whole  operation  of 
cutting  the  gums  and  drawing  the  tooth  not  a  muscle  of  the 
patient  moved,  nor  was  the  slightest  alteration  of  the  pulse 
perceptible.” — Springfield  {Mas si)  Statesman,  Nov.  22,  1845. 

Case  ii.  —  “I  have  drawn  twelve  teeth  in  this  town  (Chi¬ 
copee)  from  patients  whom  Mr.  Sunderland  had  rendered 
insensible  to  pain  during  the  operation  ;  and  I  am  informed 
by  a  dentist  in  Springfield  that  a  much  larger  number  have 
been  extracted  from  persons  in  that  place,  and  uniformly 
with  the  same  results,  under  Mr.  Sunderland’s  process.”  — 
Dr.  f.  IV.  Smith.  Spring field  (Mass  '.)  Post,  Nov.  22,  1845. 

Case  12.  —  “  The  lady  said  she  felt  as  if  she  had  been 
asleep,  and  had  had  a  pleasant  dream  of  having  a  tooth 
drawn  by  Mr.  Sunderland,  which  did  not  pain  her  at  all. ’  — 
Northampton  Democrat,  Dec.  23,  1845. 


34 


IDEOLOGY. 


Case  13.  —  “  On  Friday  evening  two  young  ladies,  under 
Mr.  Sunderland’s  new  process,  had  each  a  tooth  extracted, 
without  any  se?ise  of  pain  ;  and,  as  Dr.  Sylvester  Graham, 
who  was  present,  expressed  it,  ‘  They  sat  like  a  corpse,  and 
never  moved  a  muscle.’” — Democrat ,  Northampton,  Mass., 
Dec.  23,  1845. 

Case  14. — “Dr.  John  Burdell,  the  well-known  dentist  of  this 
city,  lanced  the  gum  and  extracted  the  lady’s  tooth  while  under 
the  spell  that  Mr.  Sunderland  had  put  upon  her  ;  she  gave 
no  evidence  of  pain ,  as  was  manifest  to  the  physicians,  editors, 
and  clergymen  who  were  present  and  witnessed  the  opera¬ 
tion.” —  N  Y.  Commercial  Advertiser,  Nov.  6,  1846. 

Case  15. —  “Mr.  Sunderland  is  truly  a  wonderful  man. 
We  saw  him  entrance  a  timid  young  lady,  while  Dr.  Josiah 
Curtis  tore  out  the  nail  from  her  great  toe  with  his  forceps. 
She  never  moved  a  muscle,  and  declared  she  was  not  hurt  at 
all.”  —  Lowell  Niagara ,  June  3,  1840. 

Case  16.  —  “Mr.  Sunderland  selected  a  lady  from  the 
audience,  upon  whom  he  proposed  to  demonstrate  his  new 
theory  in  respect  to  pain  ;  and,  sure  enough,  during  the  whole 
operation,  which  continued  for  three  minutes,  in  extracting 
her  tooth,  there  was  710  sign  of  pain ,  and  a  corpse  could  not 
have  been  more  passive  in  the  hands  of  a  dissector.”  — 
Portsmouth  (  Va.)  New  Era ,  Jan.  4,  1847. 

Case  17.  —  “  Mr.  Sunderland  suspended  the  young  lady’s 
sense  of  pain  ;  and,  on  the  first  trial,  the  forceps  slipped,  but 
not  a  muscle  moved.  A  second  trial  was  successful,  and  the 
large  tooth  was  extracted  without  the  least  conscious?iess  of 
pain.”  —  Philadelphia  Daily  Sun,  Feb.  1,  1847.  ' 

Case  18.  —  “  Dr.  Mansfield  stated  that,  out  of  the  im¬ 
mense  number  of  teeth  he  had  drawn,  he  had  scarcely,  if 
ever,  found  it  necessary  to  exert  so  much  strength  as  in  this 
case  ;  but  the  young  lady  declared  that  she  had  really  felt  no 
pain  at  all,  and  knew  of  nothing  that  had  been  done  except 
the  feeling  of  Mr.  Sunderland’s  hand  upon  her  face.” — 
Pittsburg  Post,  April  19,  1848. 

^  Case  19.  —  “  Mr.  Sunderland  then  took  hold  of  Dr.  Payne 
(who  was  still  under  his  spell)  and  led  him  to  the  somnambulist 
seated  in  the  chair.  A?id  now  occurred  a  sight  upo?i  which, 
probably ,  mortal  eyes  never  gazed  before.  It  was  to  see  the 
somnambulic  doctor  in  the  process  of  extracting  that  tooth,  while 
both  he  and  the  patie?it  were  in  a  state  of  trance,  and  7ieither  of 
them  able  to  open  their  eyes  or  move  a  7nuscle  without  the  consent 


MENTAL  ANAESTHESIA. 


35 


of  the  lecturer.  In  a  few  minutes  after  the  doctor  himself  was 
seated  in  the  front  chair,  the  spell  still  upon  him ,  and  another 
physician  present  (Dr.  Lyman)  proceeded  to  perform  a  sim¬ 
ilar  operation  upon  him  !  This  experiment  was  intensely 
interesting,  and  highly  satisfactory  to  the  audience,  as  we 
suppose  it  the  first  and  only  one  of  the  kind  ever  performed 
since  old  Adam  was  put  into  the  ‘  deep  sleep  ’  for  the  purpose 
of  having  the  rib  taken  from  his  side. 

“  What  Mr.  Sunderland  has  accomplished  during  his  visit 
to  this  city  has  abundantly  confirmed  the  newspaper  reports 
we  have  seen  of  his  wonderful  performances  in  other  places, 
which,  in  the  production  of  psychological  phenomena,  place 
him  far  above  all  other  men  of  whom  history  has  given  any 
account.” —  Troy  Budget,  Sept.  23,  1845. 


To  the  foregoing  I  will  add  two  cases  showing  that 
anaesthesia  may  be  self-induced  without  the  trance  when 
the  patient  is  in  a  normal,  waking  state. 

Case  20.  —  When  giving  lectures  in  Salem,  Mass., 
(of  witchcraft  fame),  I  had  numerous  surgical  opera¬ 
tions  performed  on  patients  in  my  audience  that  were 
witnessed  by  all  the  editors  in  the  city.  I  had  gone 
into  the  dentist’s  office  to  engage  him  to  operate  for 
me  the  next  night ;  and,  as  I  was  leaving,  one  of  the 
editors  came  in,  and  as  he  proceeded  to  seat  himself  in 
the  operating  chair  he  looked  around  and  cast  a  woeful 
look  at  me,  saying  :  — 

“Oh!  Dr.  Sunderland,  I  do  wish  you  would  assist 
me  now  as  you  did  that  patient  on  your  platform  last 
night.” 

To  which  I  instantly  replied,  “  I  will,  Sir;  ”  and  as  I 
placed  my  hand  on  his  head,  the  dentist  took  out  his 
molar.  The  patient  declared  that  he  did  not  notice 
when  it  was  done,  as  he  did  not  move  at  all. 

Case  21.  —  The  case  of  my  own  daughter.  When  a 
child  she  had  her  first  tooth  drawn  under  circumstances 


36 


IDEOLOGY. 


which  had  set  her  mind  terribly  against  tooth-drawing 
and  the  sight  of  blood.  She  was  then,  in  1847,  in  her 
eighteenth  year,  and  with  me  while  giving  lectures  in 
Philadelphia.  I  had  discovered  that  one  of  her  molars 
ought  to  be  taken  out,  and  I  fixed  on  this  plan,  which 
proved  successful:  I  went  to  Dr.  Johnson,  the  den¬ 
tist,  and  explained  my  plan  to  him  how  to  proceed. 
So  one  day,  as  I  and  my  daughter  were  walking  by  the 
doctor’s  office,  I  asked  her  to  go  in  and  allow  the  doctor 
to  see  what  the  state  of  the  tooth  was,  assuring  her 
that  it  should  not  be  drawn  without  her  consent.  As 
we  went  in,  she  seated  herself  in  the  chair,  and  allowed 
the  doctor  to  examine,  when  I  whispered  in  her  ear :  — 

“Now,  daughter,  if  you  will  consent  for  Dr.  J - 

to  take  out  that  molar,  I  will  give  you  a  benefit  to-night, 
and  in  addition  you  shall  have  a  gold  watch  !  ” 

Upon  this  whisper  her  mouth  suddenly  opened  ;  and 
the  doctor  instanter  had  her  molar  on  his  table.  She 
never  moved  a  muscle,  nor  noticed  it  in  any  way,  and 
remained  perfectly  quiet  for  a  minute,  when  she  per¬ 
ceived  something  in  her  mouth,  and,  on  spitting  it  out, 
she  saw  it  was  blood.  Then  she  instantly  sprang  from 
the  chair,  with  a  shout  of  affright,  and  covered  her  face, 
in  a  paroxysm  of  excitement,  upon  the  sofa.  Nor  did 
she  ever  admit  that  she  was  conscious  of  any  pain  when 
that  tooth  was  drawn. 

Precisely  such  cases  of  ancesthesia  occur  in  every 
severe  conflict  upon  the  field  of  battle.  I  have  seen 
many  a  soldier  fatally  wounded  who  assured  me  that 
he  did  not  know  when  he  was  hurt. 

In  the  “  Boston  Medical  World,”  1 856,  page  1 33,  is  an 
account  of  two  horses  thus  killed  ;  one  in  Evansville, 
Jefferson  County,  N.  Y.  A  gentleman  had  a  high- 


MENTAL  ANAESTHESIA. 


37 


spirited,  four-year-old  horse  that  he  drove  down  to  the 
railroad  station,  in  order  to  get  him  accustomed  to  the 
railroad  whistle,  which  is  indeed  the  most  horrible 
scream  that  ever  pierced  a  human  ear,  except  perhaps 
one  other.  As  the  train  approached,  at  the  first  screech 
of  the  whistle  the  horse  fell  instantly  dead,  the  victim 
of  self-induction,  as  many  a  human  being  has  been ! 

Another  horse,  belonging  to  a  caravan  and  tied  to  a 
stake,  in  the  village,  happened  to  see  an  elephant,  as  he 
suddenly  came  in  sight  around  a  corner  near  where  the 
horse  stood  ;  the  horse  trembled,  and  fell  instantly  dead 
in  his  harness. 

Not  long  since  I  saw  the  case  of  a  monkey  that  sud¬ 
denly  died  from  fright  in  the  same  way ;  and  the  cases 
of  fascination,  now  and  then  reported,  of  birds  by  the 
snake  may  be  accounted  for  in  the  same  manner.  We 
can  easily  see  that  fear,  in  an  animal,  certainly  ap¬ 
proaches  an  idea  in  the  human  mind.  Nor  fright  alone, 
but  there  are  other  manifestations  in  the  animals  that 
are  analogous  to  what  we  see  in  human  life. 

Perhaps  it  would  be  impossible  for  me  to  refer  to  any 
other  member  of  the  medical  profession  more  highly 
esteemed,  both  as  a  surgeon  and  a  physician,  than  Dr. 
Brown-Sequard  is  at  the  present  time,  not  only  in 
Europe  but  in  America.  Certainly,  no  medical  man 
stands  higher  in  the  rank  of  his  profession  in  Paris, 
London,  and  in  these  United  States.  In  1874  he  de¬ 
livered  a  course  of  lectures  at  the  Lowell  Institute,  in 
Boston,  on  the  “  Nervous  Lorce,”  that  were  reported  in- 
the  New  York  “Tribune,”  and  from  which  I  now  quote  ; 
and  from  this  distinguished  authority  in  human  physi¬ 
ology,  pathology,  neurology,  and  physical  science,  we 
shall  see  that  while  he  admits  all  the  essential  facts  of 


33 


IDEOLOGY. 


what  has  been  called  “animal  magnetism”  or  “mes¬ 
merism,”  he  utterly  repudiates  the  theory  advocated, 
under  these  terms,  as  to  the  “control”  of  one  “will” 
by  mere  volition  over  the  nervous  system  of  another. 

No  mere  choice  or  volition  has  any  force  outside  of 
the  nervous  system  in  which  it  is  exercised ;  and,  as 
we  shall  see,  Dr.  Brown-Sequard  distinctly  recognizes 
and  affirms  the  fact  of  self-induction  as  supreme  in  the 
human  mind,  and  he  details  numerous  facts  that  are 
not  to  be  accounted  for  satisfactorily  in  any  other  way 
than  by  the  theory  of  selfhood  and  the  law  of  self- 
induction  and  evolution  advocated  in  these  pages. 

Dr  Brown-Sequard  says  :  — 

“  There  are  two  elements  in  the  nervous  system  which  are 
united  together,  but  distinct  one  from  the  other.  One  con¬ 
sists  in  the  nerve  cell,  which  is  nearly  round.  That  cell  has, 
starting  from  it,  a  number  of  filaments.  In  the  spinal  cord 
and  in  the  brain  those  cells  generally  have  one  element  en¬ 
tirely  different  from  the  others,  and  that  element  is  fibrous , 
and  similar  to  the  other  elements  we  find  in  the  nervous 
system.  There  are,  therefore,  two  kinds  of  elements  in  the 
nervous  system, —  the  fibrous  and  the  cells,  with  their  pro¬ 
longations.  But  the  remarkable  point  which  you  ought  to 
keep  in  mind  is,  that  the  fibres  of  the  nervous  system  are 
united  with  those  cells.  Within  the  nervous  centre  —  that 
is,  the  brain  and  the  spinal  cord  —  there  is  but  one  of  these 
fibres  with  cells.  In  other  parts  of  the  body  there  are  cells 
that  have  two  real  fibres  starting  from  them,  besides  the  rami¬ 
fications. 

“  Now,  the  nervous  force  is  produced  in  those  elements  of 
the  nervous  system.  The  nervous  force  is  manifested  in 
nervous  action,  and  it  belongs  only  to  those  elements  I  have 
described.  There  are  animals,  and  circumstances  in  man, 
where  the  nervous  system  is  so  transformed  that  it  may  be 
scarcely  recognizable,  and  yet  nervous  force  is  manifested. 
But  the  great  question  is  as  to  whether  the  boundaries  of 
the  nervous  system  are  also  the  boundaries  of  health  and  of 
that  nervous  force.  But  there  are  no  facts  to  prove  that  any 


MENTAL  ANAESTHESIA. 


39 


nervous  force  can  be  made  to  spring  out  of  the  nervous  sys¬ 
tem  so  as  to  produce  action  in  other  bodies.  And  you  can 
easily  understand  that,  if  this  is  true,  it  is  a  death-blow  to  the 
theory  of  what  is  called  ‘  animal  magnetism.’  ” 

Dr.  Brown-Sequard  has  given  a  vast  amount  of  path¬ 
ological  facts,  all  tending  to  confirm  the  supremacy 
of  what  I  have  denominated  the  law  of  self-induc¬ 
tion  and  evolution  ;  and  among  them  he  enumerates 
many  under  the  term  of  “Phenomena  of  arrest ”  of 
this  nervous  force,  and  including  the  nervous  pheno¬ 
mena  known  under  what  is  called  “mesmerism,”  and 
Christian  excitements  and  ideas,  while  indeed  he  does 
not  seem  to  recognize  the  psychological  law  of  sympa¬ 
thetic  initiation ,  or  the  law  of  association  or  relation , 
which  dominates  in  the  human  mind.  Again,  he 
says  :  — 

“  Power  of  the  Nerves  over  Nutrition. —  Nutrition  goes  on 
in  plant  life  without  a  nervous  system ;  and,  while  it  assists 
nutrition  in  man,  the  nervous  force  has  a  great  power  in  dis¬ 
turbing  it  under  certain  conditions.  And  I  now  approach  a 
broad  subject,  about  which,  unfortunately,  I  shall  not  have 
time  to  say  as  much  as  I  could  wish.  In  fact,  it  would  take 
a  large  number  of  lectures  to  develop  it  completely.  It  is 
the  power  of  the  mind  over  the  body,  through  nervous  force. 
That  power  of  the  mind  over  the  body  is  much  greater  than 
most  of  us  imagine.  Indeed,  I  do  not  think  that  any  one 
among  you,  however  exalted  his  or  her  idea  of  the  strength 
and  variety  of  their  power,  has  an  adequate  conception  of  its 
magnitude  within  the  bounds  that  I  will  mention.  You  all 
know  what  ‘mesmerists’  have  tried  to  establish,  and  the 
power  attributed  to  Perkins’s  tractors.  All  these  views  have 
some  ground  in  Nature,  while  the  theories  are  not  true  ;  and 
I  may  say  that  there  is  hardly  any  folly  believed  by  mankind 
but  has  some  ground,  some  facts,  upon  which  it  rests. 

“  But,  although  there  may  be  some  ground  for  it,  the 
theory  does  not  cover  all  the  facts,  and  therefore  cannot  be 
true.  The  power  of  the  mind  over  its  own  body  is  immense, 


40 


IDEOLOGY. 


as  is  seen  in  a  state  called  ‘  mesmerism,’  and  the  numerous 
other  cases  I  have  mentioned.  John  Hunter  long  ago  de¬ 
monstrated  how  false  the  ‘mesmeric’  theory  is.  In  the 
same  way  this  power  induces  pain,  as  is  shown  in  the  case 
related  by  Prof.  Bennett,  of  Edinburgh,  who  states  the  case 
of  a  butcher  who  was  trying  to  hang  a  piece  of  meat  on  a 
hook ;  when  he  found,  suddenly,  that  he  had  suspended 
himself  instead  of  the  meat  upon  the  hook  !  His  agony  of 
pain  was  terrible ;  but  the  examination  showed  that  the  hook 
had  passed  through  his  sleeve  and  had  merely  scratched  the 
skin. 

“  I  could  give  a  good  many  facts  to  show  that,  in  good 
health,  persons  of  this  imagination  can  thus  be  made  to  suf¬ 
fer  a  great  deal  of  pain  when  there  is  no  organic  cause  for  it ; 
and  I  could  show  that  in  the  same  way  the  sensation  of  pain 
may  be  suspended,  as  is  shown  in  the  cases  of  the  Christian 
convulsionaries  of  St.  Medard.  And  as  this  power  has  been 
extended  to  anaesthesia,  it  seems  to  me  unfortunate  that  the 
discovery  of  ether  was  made  just  when  it  was,  in  1847,  as  the 
ether  has  prevented  attention  to  the  discovery  made  before, 
— that  anaesthesia  resulted  from  a  state  of  somnambulism,  in 
which  surgical  operations  have  been  performed  that  were 
painless.  But  this  process  by  somnambulism  was  long  and 
tedious,  and  surgeons,  in  a  hurry,  gave  it  up.  This  I  regret 
very  much,  as  there  has  never  been  a  case  of  death  from 
somnambulism,  while  you  well  know  that  a  great  many  deaths 
have  been  produced  by  other  methods.” 

And  just  now,  June  25,  1882,  I  notice  a  report  in 
the  papers  of  the  case  of  Major  Savary,  chairman  of  a 
naval  and  military  club,  London,  who  recently  fell  sud¬ 
denly  dead  from  joy,  on  being  informed  that  he  had 
won  a  prize  of  ,£500. 

The  following  notice  (by  a  New  York  editor)  of  my 
labors  in  1843  seems  appropriate,  and  worthy  to  be 
repeated  here :  — 

“  We  have  received  another  number  of  Dr.  Sunderland’s 
{  Magnet.’  It  is  well  known  that  this  interesting  monthly 
treats  of  the  laws  of  mind  that  act  upon  and  control  the 
body ;  the  primordial  source  of  life,  vegetable,  animal,  and 


MENTAL  ANA2STHESTA. 


41 


mental ;  the  cause  of  disease  and  decay.  This  is  surely  a 
subject  worthy  of  our  most  serious  study.  Shall  we,  then, 
any  longer  be  deterred  from  openly  espousing  ideology, 
and  applying  ourselves  to  its  study,  by  the  sneers  of  those 
who  having  eyes  to  see,  and  ears  to  hear,  the  truth,  will 
neither  see  nor  hear,  because  it  transcends  their  attainments, 
or  contradicts  their  adopted  theories  ?  Let  those  who  will 
hug  their  ignorance  and  choose  darkness  rather  than  light, 
we  hope  to  see,  at  no  distant  day,  the  science  of  ideology 
everywhere  received  and  cherished,  its  claims  acknowledged, 
and  its  wonderful  teachings  understood  and  appreciated. 
We  hope  to  see  societies  formed  for  this  purpose,  here  and 
#  elsewhere,  to  concentrate  efforts,  collect  facts,  procure  books 
and  other  means  of  information  so  as  to  regulate  the  course 
of  public  instruction.  —  Skaneciteles  (JV.  K)  Democrat. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


“  MIRACULOUS  CURES.” 

“Revival”  spasms  are  called  “  miraculous,  ”  and  so 
certain  forms  of  disease  are  alleged  to  have  been 
“  cured,  in  answer  to  faith  and  prayer,”  by  “  superna¬ 
tural  power  from  on  high.”  And  if  any  case  of  disease 
was  ever  radically  cured,  except  from  within,  by  the 
nutritive  economy,  it  is  within  our  scope  and  design 
to  ascertain  how  it  was  done.  Diseases  are  said  to  have 
been  “  cured  ”  by  a  variety  of  nondescripts  from  another 
world  !  But  is  it  so  ?  Cures  follow  different  methods 
of  medication,  and  drugs  by  various  names  are  still  re¬ 
lied  upon  in  attempts  to  relieve  human  suffering. 

There  is  but  one  way  to  be  born,  and  one  way  only 
by  which  we  can  be  nourished  and  grow  to  the  stature 

•  y 

of  manhood.  There  is  but  one  way  for  any  wounds, 
mental  or  physical,  to  be  healed ;  and  that  same  nutri¬ 
tive  economy  which  unites  the  divided  parts  of  a  broken 
bone,  cures  all  forms  of  disease  that  are  cured. 

This  term  “miracle  ”  is  used  in  the  mystical  writings 
of  the  ancients  to  signify  a  sign,  a  prodigy,  something 
wonderful  (John  iv.  48)  ;  and  by  modern  Christians  it 
is  used  to  signify  mental  and  nervous  phenomena  that 
are  not  to  be  accounted  for  by  any  laws  that  inhere  in 
the  human  organism,  but  by  “supernatural  power,”  of 
which  we  are  ignorant;  and  hence  it  is  “miraculous,” 

(42) 


MIRACULOUS  CURES. 


43 


or  wonderful.  According  to  this  definition,  the  greatest 
ignorance  “wonders  ”  the  most.  That  which  ignorance 
cannot  account  for  is  a  miracle;  ”  hence  a  true  defini¬ 
tion  of  this  term  is  still  needed,  and  here  it  is  :  — 

A  miracle  is  produced  by  forms  of  force  regarding 
which  mankind  are  utterly  in  the  dark  and  uninformed. 

Vitality,  instinctive  phenomena,  the  temperament, 
and  nutrition  are  not  miraculous,  albeit  each  is  “won¬ 
derful.”  Their  forms  of  force  are  known,  and  in  those 
cases  called  “miraculous”  all  the  factors  are  apparent. 
Moreover,  it  is  only  in  the  smallest  number  —  not  one  in 
a  hundred  million  of  the  race  ■ —  of  whom  any  thing  mi¬ 
raculous  has  ever  been  alleged  !  Only  a  few  are  saved 
(Matt.  vii.  14).  Only  seventy-four  of  all  the  vast  mil¬ 
lions  of  the  human  race,  during  the  past  six  thousand 
years,  ever  supposed  their  eyes  big  enough  to  see  the  face 
and  the  feet  of  Omnipotence  (Ex.  xxiv.  10,) ;  and,  com¬ 
pared  with  the  mass  of  humanity  now  living,  there  has 
been  only  here  and  there  one  of  such  a  “make  up”  as 
to  assume  mediumship  between  humanity  and  all  the 
dead  of  the  ages  past !  When  we  consider  how  exceed¬ 
ingly  small  the  number  is  that  are  ever  “converted,”  or 
ever  think  themselves  really  “cured”  by  a  nondescript 
in  the  sky,  it  suggests  to  us  how  numerous  the  human 
elements  are  that  enter  into  these  “miraculous  cures  ”  ! 
Moreover,  it  is  not  assumed  that  any  of  these  “cures  ” 
ever  occur  without  the  preceding  “faith  ”  and  “prayer,” 
which  are  human,  and  fully  accounted  for  and  explained 
by  psychology.  Now,  if  upon  examination  we  find  the 
human  forms  of  force -that  are  sufficient  for  self-in¬ 
ducing  these  so-called  miraculous  cures,  shall  we  still 
believe  them  produced  by  supernatural  power  ? 

In  Nature’s  order  we  have  instinct,  nutrition,  nervous 


44 


IDEOLOGY. 


centres,  sensation,  consciousness,  thought  and  ideas .  A 
thought  may  be  suggested  by  any  one  of  a  thousand 
causes,  remote  or  intimate.  An  idea  is  evolved  from 
within,  and  it  becomes  the  image  seen  in  the  mind, 
true  or  false,  or  a  combination  of  both  falsehood  and 
truth.  The  function  of  the  brain  is  the  evolution  of 
ideas,  which  are  expressed  by  signs  or  words,  but  are 
never,  as  idcas}  transferred  by  mere  volition  out  of  one 
intellect  into  another. 

All  matured  minds  are  controlled  by  their  own  ideas, 
and  by  what  they  suppose  to  be  the  ideas  of  others. 
The  idea  of  the  trance  brings  on  that  state.  An  idea 
invests  a  myth  with  power,  and  in  this  way  disease  is 
in  the  same  way  cured.  At  other  times  a  sensational 
idea  arrests  the  vital  movements,  and  induces  instant 
death,  as  if  the  person  were  smitten  by  a  bolt  from  the 
skies ;  and  such  a  power,  purely  mental,  is  sufficient  to 
perform  any  cure  ever  supposed  to  be  miraculous. 

Since  the  sensational  death  of  Ananias  and  his  wife 
was  reported  (Acts  v.),  any  number,  and,  I  may  say, 
thousands  of  similar  cases  of  sudden  death  have  oc¬ 
curred  —  not,  indeed,  under  the  auspices  of  dogmatic 
theology,  but  from  sensational  appeals  to  their  faith  and 
fear,  which  resulted  in  sudden  death  ;  and  it  would  fill 
a  volume  to  give  an  account  of  such  deaths  of  which 
any  record  has  been  published.  Such  cases  are  fre¬ 
quently  reported  in  the  papers  as  the  following  :  — 

“Leavenworth,  (Kan.),  March  5,  1881.  —  On  yesterday 
morning  a  young  lady  named  Mary  Kittel,  who,  seven  years 
ago,  was  converted  to  the  Roman  Catholic  faith,  was  sud¬ 
denly  cured  while  at  the  communion-table  in  the  Cathedral  of 
the  Immaculate  Conception.  She  fell  down  a  flight  of  stairs 
October,  and  became  paralyzed  in  her  left  leg.  She  began 
the  nine  prayers  before  Lent  nine  days  ago,  and  on  going  to 


MIRACULOUS  CURES. 


45 


the  communion-table  had  to  use  crutches.  After  the  usual 
prayers  she  says  she  implored  the  Virgin  Mary  to  intercede 
for  her.  When  she  started  to  go  away  she  forgot  hef 
crutches,  and  went  away  without  them,  apparently  as  well  as 
ever.  She  was  interviewed  to-day,  and  says  the  cure  is  un¬ 
doubtedly  a  miracle.  She  is  a  very  respectable  young  lady.” 

In  this  case  we  see  the  excitement  of  “faith,”  which 
calls  into  action  the  law  of  self-induction,  and  this  is 
done  by  the  sensational  peculiar  to  the  Popish  Church. 

A  mother  in  New  Hampshire  was  recently  struck 
instantly  dead.  Seeing  her  son  run  away  with  upon  a 
frightened  horse  he  had  just  mounted,  she  imme¬ 
diately  fell  dead  near  her  own  door. 

We  have  also  an  account  of  a  Grecian  father,  who,  on 
seeing  his  two  sons  return  as  victors  from  the  Olympic 
games,  was  so  excited  with  joy  that  he  fell  suddenly 
dead  as  they  approached  him.  The  wife  of  David 
Prentiss,  Esq.,  of  Lexington,  (Ky.),  on  reading  a  letter 
that  informed  her  of  her  husband’s  death,  sank  instantly 
dead,  with  the  letter  in  her  hand.  A  case  is  just  now 
reported  in  the  public  papers  of  a  lady  in  good  health 
who  was  invited  into  the  room  where  her  husband  had 
been  confined  by  sickness,  and,  on  perceiving  that  he 
was  dying,  she  instantly  fell  dead  upon  his  bed,  when 
he  breathed,  after  the  life-current  had  stopped  in  the 
heart  of  his  wife. 

Nor  is  it  in  the  power  of  any  well  person,  this  day, 
to  say  how  any  sudden  shock  of  joy  or  fear  might  in¬ 
terfere  with  his  nutritive  system  ;  and  those  who  pride 
themselves  in  view  of  what  they  call  “saving  faith” 
should  bear  in  mind  that  this  mental  trust ,  called  faith, 
has  killed  more  than  it  ever  saved.  Thus  it  killed 
the  prisoner  who  was  made  falsely  to  believe  he  was 
actually  bleeding  to  death,  when  not  a  drop  of  his 


4  6 


IDEOLOGY. 


blood  had  been  shed.  Further,  in  the  author’s  work  on 
the  Theory  of  Nutrition  will  be  found  an  extended  ac¬ 
count  of  his  own  cases  of  cure,  far  more  wonderful  than 
any  ever  alleged  to  have  occurred  by  supernatural 
power,  in  answer  to  prayer.  To  these  are  also  added 
the  painless  surgical  operations  performed  on  patients 
in  a  state  of  trance,  self-induced  by  faith  in  this  law  of 
self-induction. 

Ideas,  as  elsewhere  stated,  are  true  or  false,  as  faith 
is  equally  powerful  when  it  is  in  falsehood  as  when  it  is. 
in  a  truthful  idea.  But  an  ideal  which  is  common  to 
all  minds  is  imaginary  always,  and  never  real.  It  is 
the  unconscious  choice  agreed  upon  by  the  taste  and 
the  fancy.  The  margin  for  the  exercise  of  this  choice 
is  as  spacious  as  imagination  can  render  it,  of  beauty, 
goodness,  truthfulness,  justice,  harmony,  and  perfec¬ 
tion,  heaven,  or  whatever  object  we  think  of  the  most 
and  the  most  desire.  There  never  was  a  thinking  mind 
without  an  ideal.  This  is  the  object  in  all  aspiration, 
and  when  it  is  of  the  unknowable,  faith  invests  it  with 
that  power  that  cures  a  wound  that  the  same  “faith” 
itself  had  made.  It  is  worshipped  in  various  forms,  and 
to  this  ideal  sincere  prayers  are  offered. 

In  this  condition  of  things,  faith  and  fear  exciting 
this  power  of  self-induction,  certain  cures  are  made, 
called,  for  this  reason,  “miraculous,”  and  thanks  are 
offered  to  this  ideal  of  the  power.  Thus  it  comes  to 
pass,  when  false  ideas  are  adopted  and  entertained  for 
a  time  and  associated  with  the  conscience  (or  that 
judgment  which  the  mind  forms  by  its  own  sense  of 
that  which  ought  or  ought  not  to  be  done),  that  error 
becomes  installed  in  the  control  of  that  mind  ;  and  to 
realize  with  what  pertinacity  this  control  is  manifested 


MIRACULOUS  CURES. 


47 


from  adolescence  through  a  long  life  down  to  old  age, 
we  have  only  to  look  around,  and  notice  the  good 
Christians  who  adopt  opposing  views  of  things.  Both 
opposing  theories  cannot  be  true  ;  yet  both  are  held 
with  equal  tenacity  through  life,  and  both  are  equally 
trusted  as  affording  consolation  in  the  solemn  hour  of 
death. 

Here  follows  another  of  those  sensational  cases,  such 
as  we  are  constantly  seeing  both  in  the  Christian  and 
in  the  secular  papers  :  — 

“  Mr.  Murray,  of  Atchison  County,  Mo.,  concerning  whose 
little  daughter  the  following  singular  circumstance  is  related 
by  the  Atchison  County  ‘  Mail,’  is  well  known  by  many  re¬ 
siding  in  and  about  St.  Joseph,  particularly  those  engaged  in 
agricultural  and  horticultural  pursuits  :  ‘  A  twelve-year-old 
daughter  of  Mr.  Murray  was  sick  with  diphtheria  a  short  time 
ago,  and  to  all  appearances  died.  She  remained  in  such  a 
condition  sevqral  hours,  and  then  became  perfectly  conscious. 
She  then  explained  that  she  had  been  to  heaven,  and  pro¬ 
ceeded  to  describe  in  a  most  beautiful  and  wonderful  manner 
what  she  had  seen.  Indeed,  it  seemed  that  she  had  been 
gifted  with  supernatural  powers  of  description  ;  for  the  lan¬ 
guage  she  used  portrayed  an  idea  of  the  grandeur  of  the  ‘  land 
beyond  ’  never  before  experienced  by  those  who  heard  her. 

“  ‘  Her  little  brother  was  very  sick  with  the  same  dreadful 
disease  when  she  recovered  consciousness.  She  told  them 
that  she  and  her  brother  were  both  going  to  die  soon,  and 
that  he  would  die  first ;  and  such  was  the  case,  his  death  pre¬ 
ceding  hers  several  hours.  A  number  of  persons  saw  the 
girl  and  heard  her  talk,  and  they  all  unite  in  pronouncing  it 
a  remarkable  case.’  ” 

A  mineral  is  said  to  possess  “polarity”  when  one 
point  of  the  magnetic  needle  tends  to  it  and  the  other 
recedes  from  it.  A  stone  thrown  up  into  the  air  forms 
a  “pole,”  and  returns  to  the  earth.  Thus,  each  atom 
tends  to  its  centre,  or  pole,  from  which  we  infer  the  all- 
pervading  law  of  gravitation.  Hence  the  dual  law  that 


48 


IDEOLOGY. 


holds  each  planet  in  the  solar  system  to  the  central 
sun,  and  by  which  each  planet  is  carried  around  in 
space  in  its  orbit  forever.  As  the  human  is  the  cul¬ 
mination  of  the  highest  forms  of  one  eternal  force,  man 
is  himself  the  highest,  truly  so  called.  He  is  the  per¬ 
fection  of  all  centres,  and  his  sphere  or  polarity  deter¬ 
mines  his  physical  and  psychological  “make-up.”  He 
never  lives  beyond  a  certain  period  ;  he  never  weighs 
beyond  a  certain  number  of  pounds,  and  his  mental  and 
his  physical  capacities  never  exceed  a  certain  pole. 
Hence  we  can  see  a  correspondence  between  mental 
and  physical  phenomena. 

Each  mind  has  its  own  physical  sphere,  as  each 
physical  body  has.  But  the  moral  elevates  the  human 
above  all  else  in  the  order  of  Nature,  as  is  shown  in  the 
social  loves  or  relations.  The  human  mind  is  unlimited 
in  range  of  thought,  and  it  evolves  ideas  true  or  false 
of  things  it  knows,  and  ideals  purely  imaginary  of 
things  known  and  unknown.  One  of  the  first  things 
done  as  the  mind  approaches  maturity  by  its  taste  and 
fancy  is  the  formation  of  ideals  of  whatever  most  occu¬ 
pies  its  thoughts,  and  for  the  time  being  it  is  the  centre 
or  pole  around  which  it  gravitates.  For  its  centre,  its 
ideal,  the  mind  aspires,  and  of  it  dreams  both  day  and 
night  from  early  childhood  down  to  old  age  and  the 
grave.  Who  has  not  noticed,  in  an  extended  social 
experience,  how  impossible  it  always  is  to  convince 
another  of  error,  and  in  respect  to  theories  of  what  no 
one  can  know  ?  As  we  find  ourselves  controlled  by  the 
loves  in  the  social  relations,  so  are  we  unconsciously 
controlled  by  the  imaginary  relations  with  our  ideals 
of  perfection  and  beauty. 

It  is  a  common  observation  among  thinking  men, 


MIRACULOUS  CURES. 


49 


that  intelligent  people  should  know  better  than  to  be¬ 
come  victimized  by  error.  But  an  acquaintance  with 
psychology  shows  us  how  it  is  that  all  minds  are  liable  to 
be  thus  victimized,  and  when  once  the  victim  of  error,  the 
mind  having  no  consciousness  of  the  processes  of  its 
own  nervous  machinery,  the  laws  and  associations  hold 
it  in  that  direction  that  hold  us  to  the  truth  in  any  case. 

No  lid  is  large  enough  to  cover  itself.  No  mind  — 
% 

Christian,  Turk,  or  Jew — is  strong  enough  in  “saving 
faith  ”  to  lift  its  own  body  by  merely  pulling  at  its  own 
shoe-strings.  No  miracle  can  render  you  conscious  of 
your  own  ignorance. 

We  are  never  conscious  of  our  own  digestion,  nutri¬ 
tion,  or  growth.  We  know  nothing  whatever  of  our 
own  mental  processes,  or  by  what  n-ervous  movements 
we  become  conscious  of  love  or  hate,  fear  or  joy,  faith 
or  doubt.  The  nutritive  economy  within  that  “cures,” 
chooses  (within  a  limited  sphere)  its  own  time  and 
methods,  and  thus  it  performs  its  “wonders”  while  we 
sleep.  What  else  gives  shape  and  form  and  features, 
ere  ever  the  light  breaks  upon  our  eyes,  or  we  can 
know  how  we  became  possessed  of  our  disposition,  or 
the  name  to  which  we  answer?  No  mind  has,  or  can 
have,  any  cognizance  of  the  nervous  movements  that 
evolve  its  own  consciousness  of  faith,  fear,  hope,  or 
joy.  Of  these  emotions,  when  once  excited,  we  are 
indeed  conscious,  and  if  we  do  not  know  enough  of 
psychology  to  know  any  better,  we  may  attribute  them 
to  the  ridgepole,  or  to  a  nondescript  near  the  north 
star;  or,  on  finding  a  wound  healed,  we  may  call  it 
“miraculous,”  and  rejoice  that  our  invisible  and  imagi¬ 
nary  ideal  of  power  has  performed  the  “miracle.” 

Psychology,  ignored  by  theology  and  most  despised 


50 


IDEOLOGY. 


by  superstition  and  fanaticism,  explains  all  the  “  mi¬ 
racles  ”  ever  performed  in  or  upon  the  human  body  ; 
and  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  author,  forty 
years  ago,  adopted  the  scientific  method  of  exact  ex¬ 
periment  before  announcing  the  theory  of  self-induction 
and  the  other  mental  laws  described  in  these  pages. 
The  science  of  pathology  does  not  owe  its  existence  to 
self-examination.  The  human  body  has  to  be  minutely 
dissected  and  all  its  parts  carefully  inspected  by  the 
physician  ere  its  morbid  conditions  can  be  detected 
and  the  appropriate  remedy  determined  upon/  But  in 
psychology  the  practice  of  theologians  and  others  has 
been  to  take  all  things  for  granted  ;  and,  as  the  mind 
has  no  capacity  for  cognizing  its  own  elementary  ma¬ 
chinery,  it  plods  along  in  the  same  antiquated  errors ; 
and,  victimized  by  its  own  ignorance  of  psychology, 
it  instinctively  repels  any  offers  of  information  from 
sources  not  under  the  auspices  of  the  ism,  as  thus  :  — 

First,  instinctive,  nervous  centres  ;  secondly,  sensa¬ 
tion  ;  thirdly,  consciousness,  intelligence ;  fourthly, 
thinking ;  and  last,  ideas,  ideals,  and  invention  of 
methods  ;  and  so  vast  another  field  for  experimental  in¬ 
vestigation  could  not  be  opened  before  us. 

Laws  purely  psychological  are  involved  in  every 
thought  and  in  each  word  we  utter,  from  the  first  to  the 
last  one.  They  are  in  all  forms  of  speech,  in  all  our 
emotions,  all  our  sensations  of  joy  or  pain.  Without 
these  mental  factors,-  incredulity,  faith,  and  fear,  the 
pulpit  would  be  powerless.  The  psychological  laws 
here  described  generate  all  the  “p°wer”  there  is  in  the 
idea  of  Omniscience,  or  the  Holy  Ghost.  But  for  these 
mental  laws  there  would  be  no  oratory,  no  music,  no 
charm  in  poetry,  and  no  joy  in  the  social  relations  of 


MIRACULOUS  CURES. 


51 


life  ;  and  the  fact  should  here  be  noted  that,  of  the 
three  learned  professions,  so  called,  the  clergy,  which 
certainly  are  the  most  dependent  upon  psychology,  are 
by  far  the  most  deficient  in  their  knowledge  of  this 
science.  The  mass  of  this  profession  are  constantly 
drilling  the  human  mind  with  their  sensational  appeals 
to  credulity,  faith,  and  fear.  There  is  not  a  scholarly 
medical  man  to  be  named  who  does  not  know  that, 
since  a  similar  appeal  was  followed  by  the  sudden  death 
of  Ananias  and  his  wife,  thousands  of  others  have  been 
killed  in  the  same  way  by  the  supreme  power  of  this 
law  of  self-induction,  by  which  all  the  miraculous  cures, 
so  palled,  are  wrought. 

From  the  drift  of  what  has  been  explained  in  the  pre¬ 
ceding  pages,  it  will  have  occurred  to  the  intelligent 
reader  that  no  one  can  have  any  power  to  cure  a  disease 
in  the  person  of  another  by  mere  volition ,  as  was 
claimed  by  Mesmer  and  Jesus.  Indeed,  Jesus  himself 
admits  that  he  had  no  power  in  his  “  will  ”  except  that 
with  which  he  had  been  invested  by  the  confidence  and 
faith  of  those  whom  he  is  reported  to  have  healed 
(Matt.  ix.  28).  Nor  does  it  seem  necessary  here  to  at¬ 
tempt  to  show  that  the  same  is  true  of  the  clergy,  — 
that  they  have  no  control  over  the  minds  of  the  people, 
only  just  so  far  as  they  are  esteemed  and  trusted  by 
the  people  with  whom  they  are  associated. 


CHAPTER  V 


IDEOLOGY. 


“  The  spring  whence  order  flows,  that  all  directs, 
And  knits  the  cause  with  the  effects.” 

“  On  every  thorn  delightful  wisdom  grows, 

In  every  stream  a  sweet  instruction  flows.” 


Both  Webster  and  Worcester  agree  in  the  definition 
of  this  term,  “Ideology,”  that  it  signifies  “The  science 
of  the  mind,  the  history  and  the  evolution  of  human 
ideas.”  Hence  when  Faraday  said,  “The  discovery  of 
the  correlation  and  the  conservation  of  all  forms  of 
force  is  the  highest  that  the  human  mind  has  the 
capacity  of  making  in  physical  science,”  he  left  the 
door  open  in  behalf  of  mental  science,  or  ideology. 
The  mind  must  be  greater  than  any  of  its  discoveries  ; 
for  are  not  all  discoveries  made  both  in  physical  and 
mental  science  by  the  human  mind  ?  By  the  mind  we 
know  that  no  atom  of  matter  is  inert.  All  of  its  laws 
and  forces  are  alive  !  A  living  energy  is  an  affection  of 
all  matter.  In  the  whole  of  things  there  is  a  potency , 
unoriginated,  progressive,  and  eternal.  Humanity’s 
success  is  assured !  And,  knowing  that  Force  is  eter¬ 
nally  progressive,  they  ask  us,  “Whence  is  life?” 
“Whence  came  the  human  mind?”  And  here  is  the 
answer :  Life  and  human  destiny  came  from  eternal 
evolution  :  of  eternal  progression  there  is  no  first  nor 

52 


IDEOLOGY. 


53 


last,  no  beginning  nor  end  !  Man  is  himself  by  far  the 
greatest  miracle !  And  in  his  make-up,  hope  of  future 
good,  as  a  brilliant  star,  shines  in  the  darkest  night  of 
sorrow. 

Instinct  is  evinced  in  the  whole  of  things  !  It  is  that 
law  within  that  evolves  the  phenomena.  In  the  so¬ 
lar  system,  in  all  worlds,  the  same  !  It  is  the  power 
within  that  evolves  all  forms,  till  they  appear  in  vege¬ 
table,  animal,  and  mental  life.  As  in  one  drop  of 
water,  so  it  is  of  the  ocean  !  Life  is  in  every  particle 
of  good  air ;  and  for  the  want  of  it  all  must  sooner  or 
later  die.  And  how  long  should  we  live  if  there  were 
no  life  in  the  food  we  eat  ?  Perfect  food  makes  perfect 
blood;  and  the  arterial  blood  heals  all  wounds,  both  of 
the  body  and  the  mind,  no  matter  what  the  process  of 
cure ! 

Nor,  since  1836,  when  I  made  this  discovery,  have  I 
ever  had  any  use  for  the  pill-box.  I  have  now  in  my 
office  a  box  of  pills,  “  given  me  to  take,”  fifty  years  ago, 
by  the  Rev.  Billy  Hibbard,  a  Methodist  preacher,  well 
known  in  this  day.  He  was  a  Dutchman,  and,  to  assure 
me  as  to  the  efficacy  of  his  “pills,”  he  told  me  that  a 
Methodist  sister,  who  had  swallowed  a  box  of  them, 
told  him  that  “  she  really  believed  that  there  had  been 
a  Methodist  prayer  in  each  one  of  them  ”  ! 

Animals  have  no  consecutive  ideas,  nor  any  reason 
above  instinct ;  but  it  has  often  seemed  to  me  that 
many  animals,  in  their  movements,  seem  to  foreshadozv 
human  ideas  and  reason.  Yet  there  are  numerous  con¬ 
siderations  which  evince  the  infinite  distance  between 
the  highest  in  the  animal  kingdom  and  the  lowest  in 
the  human  race,  — a  distance,  no  doubt,  much  extended 
since  the  juvenile  period  of  humanity.  Two  of  these 


54 


IDEOLOGY. 


considerations  I  will  refer  to  here  :  the  human  mind 
evolves  consecutive  ideas.  The  mind  grows  and  pro¬ 
gresses  after  the  body,  at  twenty  years,  has  ceased  its 
growth.  But  how  long  the  mind  may  continue  to  for¬ 
get,  and  learn  anew,  is  not  known. 

As  instinct,  I  think,  may  be  seen  in  the  whole  of 
things,  it  seems  to  me  that  I  can  see  humanity  the 
highest  shadowed  forth  in  all  the  movements  of  the 
solar  system,  down  through  the  mineral,  the  vegetable, 
and  the  animal  kingdoms.  And  the  evolution  of  human 
ideas  places  man  at  the  head  of  the  list. 

One  substance  and  pervaded  by  one  living  force, 
the  forms ,  the  sphere ,  and  the  use  of  phenomena  dif¬ 
fer.  But  as  to  matter  and  force,  there  is  never  less 
or  more,  —  no  first  sustaining  a  numerical  relation  to 
the  last.  This  is  Nature’s  programme.  It  is  supreme; 
a  living,  eternal,  progressive  Economy .  No  atom  can 
be  truly  pronounced  inert ;  so  that  progression  persists , 
and  it  has  no  limits  so  far  as  we  know. 

May  we  not  suppose  that  our  own  humanity  may  be 
truly  said  to  have  been  born  when  forms  of  life  had 
gone  before,  and  human  brains  (two  brains  in  each 
cranium)  began  by  the  dual  laws  of  involution  (in¬ 
stinctive  ingestion,  nutrition,  nourishment)  and  evo¬ 
lution  (growth,  and  the  phenomena  that  we  behold  on 
every  hand)  ?  Thus  we  have  innervation ,  sensation ,  con¬ 
sciousness ,  memory ,  thinking,  and  consecutive  ideas ;  also, 
a  consciousness  of  selfhood,  and  the  self-healing  of  all 
forms  of  curable  diseases,  similarly  as  all  wounds  and 
sores  are  healed  by  the  instinctive  forces. 

No  matter  what  your  phenomena  may  be —  Christian, 
Mormon,  the  “haunted  house,”  in  Spiritualism,  Moham¬ 
medan,  or  Pagan  —  in  which  you  trust ,  when  they  are 


IDEOLOGY. 


55 


produced  by  forms  of  force  of  which  nothing  is  known, 
we  are  deceived  !  Hence,  what  is  called  “  saving  faith  ” 
produces  changes  in  our  own  minds,  while  it  has  no 
power  outside  of  the  nervous  system  in  which  it  is  ex¬ 
ercised.  And  when  I  say  that  the  same  is  true  of  any 
other  human  emotion ,  I  explain  to  you  the  forces  and 
the  laws  by  which  all  our  mental  phenomena  must  be 
accounted  for. 

The  vital,  the  mental  potency  is  in  the  whole  of 
things ;  and  man  is  at  the  head,  because  he  is  the  cul¬ 
mination  of  all  the  forms  of  force  that  had  gone  before. 
All  these  forces  and  laws  are  alive.  There  is  no  such 
existence  as  what  has  been  called  dead  matter  !  The 
life  is  in  the  air  that  we  breathe  and  in  the  food  that 
we  eat.  And  Nature’s  providence  is  such  that  it  de¬ 
posits  the  food  with  the  seed  upon  which  the  plant’s 
first  start  into  life  is  to  feed.  And,  higher  still,  it  pro¬ 
vides  for  us  our  food  before  we  are  born !  And  that 
must  be  true  of  humanity  that  is  true  as  to  the  whole 
of  things  Is  there  any  vegetable  that  is  not  self¬ 
feeding  and  self-growing  ?  Do  you  know  of  an  animal 
that  was  not  born,  and  that  is  not  self-feeding  and  self¬ 
growing  ?  This  principle  of  selfhood  we  see  in  the 
central  sun,  and  in  all  the  solar  system.  How  can  it 
be  less  true  of  humanity  ?  And  why  should  we  sup¬ 
pose  man  to  differ  so  much  from  Nature’s  programme? 
Admitting  that  his  mind  results  from  the  instinctive 
forces  and  laws  in  the  whole  of  things,  humanity  must 
be  admitted  a  complete  and  a  final  success  that  can 
never  fail  if  the  forces  and  the  laws  above  never  fail. 
And  it  is  from  Nature’s  order  that  we  know  the  tre¬ 
mendous  mistake  of  Christianity. 

How  much  Christians  have  always  made  of  what 


56 


IDEOLOGY. 


they  call  “saving  faith”  (Heb.  xii.  i),  which  is  simply 
an  act  of  the  human  mind  !  Without  this  self-created 
u  evidence,”  hell  is  our  doom  !  Nor  is  there  any  Jewish 
“god”  without  this  faith  (Heb.  xii.  6).  It  should  be 
called  “  killing  faith,”  for  it  has  killed  more  than  it  has 
ever  saved !  The  number  has  been  estimated  at  mil¬ 
lions  that  Christians  have  put  to  death  upon  the  gallows 
and  at  the  stake  upon  a  bare  suspicion  of  witchcraft  ! 
And  how  can  it  save  one  from  any  danger  to  which  he 
is  never  exposed  ? 

Having  myself  been  so  deceived  by  dogmatism  of 
the  unknown,  it  is  not  so  difficult  for  me  to  feel  a 
charity  and  forbearance  for  Christians  whose  faith  in 
ideas  have  become  crystallized  so  that  they  cannot 
realize  how  it  is  that  “  saving  faith  ”  is  really  an  act  of 
the  mind,  as  hope  or  love  or  hatred  are  !  The  laws  of 
the  human  mind  that  hold  it  to  the  truth,  hold  it  to 
error  all  the  same.  It  is  best  that  each  should  do  his 
own  thinking. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE  HIGHER  LAWS. 

How  immensely  important  must  those  principles  be 
to  which  we  owe  our  existence,  physical  and  mental  ! 
One  from  the  paternal,  one  from  the  maternal ;  and 
these  united  make  a  third ;  for  while  partaking  of  a 
combination  of  elements  from  each  parent,  yet  the  off¬ 
spring  differs  from  both  of  them,  as  in  its  individuality 
it  is  unlike  all  else  in  the  universe  of  being.  One  great 
design  in  our  instincts  is  maternity  and  conjugality  for 
the  perpetuity  of  the  race.  In  this  way  Nature  repeats 
herself  ;  and,  progressing  in  her  forms,  parents  may  see 
themselves  living  their  lives  over  again  in  their  chil¬ 
dren,  improved  in  body  and  mind.  Hence  the  sacred¬ 
ness  of  the  relation  out  of  which  we  are  born.  The 
foundation  elements  of  health ,  character ,  and  happiness 
are  laid  in  conjugality;  and  our  responsibility  will 
appear  if  we  take  into  view  the  terrible  evils  that  fol¬ 
low  any  and  all  our  excesses. 

It  is  a  well-known  psychological  fact,  that  nothing 
tends  so  much  to  augment  the  desire  as  the  habitual 
direction  of  the  mind  towards  the  objects  of  its  grati¬ 
fication.  Hence  it  is  manifest  what  habits  of  thought 
should  be  cultivated  by  those  who  suffer  from  peculiar 
nervous  weaknesses  ;  and  these  natural  laws  explain 

57 


58 


IDEOLOGY. 


how  and  why  it  is  that  so  much  injury  results  from  pro¬ 
miscuous  or  from  solitary  indulgences.  In  such  cases 
the  mind  runs  into  extremes  for  the  want  of  those 
higher  sources  of  social  happiness  that  are  supplied 
only  in  conjugal  life,  where  are  found  all  those  beauti¬ 
ful  forms  of  love  and  sympathy  that  attract,  and,  more 
than  any  others,  satisfy  the  noblest  attributes  of  man¬ 
hood. 

Each  function  needs  rest  as  really  as  the  eyes,  the 
stomach,  or  the  muscles  do,  and  hence  the  necessity  of 
the  regular  bath  ;  and,  when  this  is  omitted,  cold  water 
may  be  applied  locally  with  benefit,  daily.  The  best 
rule  for  all,  both  married  and  single,  is  to  sleep  alone. 
Both  hygienic  and  psychological  reasons  require  sepa¬ 
rate  beds  for  the  sexes. 

Happy  are  all  those  who  recognize  “the  higher  law  ” 
in  the  whole  of  things  !  They  seek  the  universal  good 
from  that  innate  love  of  goodness  more  or  less  of  which 
dominates  in  every  human  mind.  They  love  justice 
for  the  sake  of  right  dealing.  They  have  eyes,  to  see 
that  adamantine  justice  that  keeps  each  planet  in  its 
place  throughout  the  solar  system.  They  must  love 
truthfulness  for  the  truth’s  sake;  because  they  know 
that  nothing  but  the  false  and  the  wrong  can  fail.  Hu¬ 
manity  was  not  wrong  in  its  beginning.  It  is  and 
always  will  be  a  success.  Sooner  or  later  'error  must 
fail  from  its  inherent  element  of  falsehood.  Wrong 
in  the  past  has  always  failed,  as  it  ought  to  fail. 

I  never  ask  what  a  man  believes,  because  humanity 
is  upon  a  dead  level  in  matters  of  belief.  Each  one 
believes  what  he  thinks  is  truth  ;  and  when  two  per¬ 
sons  entertain  different  ideas  as  to  which  nothing  can 
be  known,  surely  there  is  no  reason  why  they  should 
dispute,  especially  if  each  is  honest  and  sincere. 


THE  HIGHER  LAWS. 


59 


This  sense  of  what  is  called  “the  higher  law”  is 
innate  ;  and,  in  the  heart  of  each,  like  humanity’s  hope 
of  future  good,  yet  shines  in  the  darkest  night.  We  do 
well  to  take  heed  to  this  law,  as  a  light  that  shines  in 
the  darkness  of  depravity  and  ignorance.  It  does  not 
depend  upon  books  or  creeds,  nor  upon  trances  like 
that  of  St.  Paul,  who  imagined  he  had  “  visions  and  rev¬ 
elations  from  the  Lord."  Nor,  as  Max  Muller  has 
stated,  did  it  originate  in  the  entrancement  of  Abraham 
when  that  “great  horror  of  darkness  fell  upon  him.” 
It  is  in  Nature’s  programme  that  the  human  mind  shall 
outgrow  its  imperfections  else  we  should  never  ad¬ 
vance  from  infancy  to  manhood. 

The  forms  of  that  one  self-controlling,  self-repelling 
“force”  that  evolves  the  human  mind  are  the  highest 
of  which  we  have  any  knowledge.  They  are  higher 
than  light,  higher  than  those  that  control  the  suns  and 
the  worlds  above  and  below.  Man  is  the  sublimation 
of  all  that  has  gone  before,  and  Nature’s  “providence” 
is  infinitely  above  the  provisions  it  has  made  for  hu¬ 
manity.  It  provides  our  food  for  us  before  we  are 
born,  and  for  a  year  after,  till  our  teeth  are  grown.  So 
it  has  provided  in  us  this  eternal  sense  of  right,  and  the 
suffering  that  follows  the  elements  that  do  the  wrong. 
Nor  is  it  difficult  to  perceive  the  obscurity  that  Chris¬ 
tianity  throws  over  the  minds  of  its  victims,  when  we 
hear  them  telling  their  little  ones  that,  if  they  utter  a 
lie  (a  falsehood,  known  to  be  such,  told  with  an  inten¬ 
tion  to  deceive),  and  they  retire  and  on  their  knees 
“  pray  ”  to  the  ridge-pole,  they  will  be  forgiven  and 
never  punished  for  their  sin  !  It  has  been  this  Chris¬ 
tian  idea  of  separating  between  the  sin  and  the  future 
punishment  that  has  sent  many  a  culprit  to  the  State’s 
prison. 


6o 


IDEOLOGY. 


But  there  can  be  no  escape  from  punishment  for  sin, 
when  we  know  that  the  elements  that  do  the  wrong 
remain  in  the  temperament.  We  are  responsible,  and 
suffer  all  the  same,  whether  we  know  it  or  not.  Nat¬ 
ure’s  order  and  laws  are  supreme.  Humanity  is  the 
resultant  phenomena  of  the  natural  laws  and  forces. 
Of  our  birth,  nor  of  our  death,  are  we  consulted.  But 
we  can  perceive  how  it  is  and  why  it  is  that  our  high¬ 
est  joy  is  in  the  obedience  to  Nature’s  highest  laws. 

The  potency  of  Nature’s  forces  are  found  in  every 
particle  of  matter ;  yet,  how  common  it  is  to  speak  of 
matter  as  inert  and  dead,  when,  in  fact,  we  contradict 
it  every  breath  we  breathe  and  every  mouthful  of  food 
we  eat  !  How  long  do  you  imagine  you  would  live  if 
there  were  no  vital  elements  in  the  air  you  are  con¬ 
stantly  inhaling  ?  Or,  if  there  were  no  vitality  in  the 
food  you  are  so  constantly  eating  ?  In  the  whole  of 
things,  matter  and  its  quality,  force,  are  eternally  the 
same  ;  never  increased  nor  diminished  the  breadth  of  a 
hair.  Hence  is  the  foundation  of  humanity’s  hope. 

Surely  there  is  nothing  for  us  to  fear, 

Nothing  in  the  future  to  dread  ! 

The  same  laws  govern  other  worlds  as  here, 

Both  of  the  living  and  the  dead. 

Science,  which  is  classified  ideas  of  all  the  factors, 
determines  the  ground  on  which  it  is  safe  to  stand.  Nor 
could  I  ask  of  any  investigator  a  more  fatal  admission 
of  his  error  than  when  he  puts  his  theory  in  opposition 
to  science  ? 

“  Statuvolence  vs.  Psychology,”  says  Dr.  W.  B. 
Fahnstock,  of  Lancaster,  Pa. ;  and  that  will  do,  my  friend  ! 
Whatever  is  in  opposition  to  psychology  is  false.  The 
theory  of  the  human  mind  that  is  opposed  to  psychol- 


THE  HIGHER  LAWS. 


6 1 


ogy  is  not  true  ;  and  the  man  who  makes  this  fatal 
admission  need  not  ask  me  why  I  use  the  term  “  Ide¬ 
ology,”  while  it  is  not  in  his  power  to  show  that  any  of 
his  patients  were  ever  entranced  by  his  method  who 
had  no  previous  idea  of  that  state. 

The  fatal  objection  to  Christianity  is  that  it  ignores 
the  well-known  psychological  laws  by  which  all  its 
phenomena  are  self-induced.  How  could  a  “  religious 
revival”  be  “got  up”  without  any  previous  drilling 
with  sensational  ideas  ?  There  are  miraculous  trances 
reported  of  Popish  nuns,  and  the  so-called  miraculous 
cures  reported  in  the  Bible ;  yet  I  have  seen  many  a 
case  of  self-healing  that  exceeded  in  the  marvellous 
any  ever  reported  of  Jesus,  or  made  “in  answer  to 
ptayer.” 

If  it  would  be  of  any  use,  I  would  challenge  the  Chris¬ 
tian  church  and  the  Pope,  priest,  and  clergy,  all  of 
them,  to  state  any  case  of  a  “miraculous  cure”  they 
ever  knew  more  miraculous  than  the  self-cure  of  a 
cancer  tumor  given  in  my  Theory  of  Nutrition.  It 
exceeds  in  the  marvellous  anything  ever  done  by  God, 
Jesus,  or  the  Holy  Ghost. 

If,  now,  you  can  appreciate  the  importance  of  Na¬ 
ture’s  Higher  Laws,  you  shall  find  in  keeping  them  a 
reward  that  is  sweet  indeed ;  obedience  not  to  a  part 
only,  but  to  all,  — all  that  appertain  to  your  Diet,  Exer¬ 
cise,  and  all  the  Habits  of  Life.  These  laws  you  will 
find  explained  in  the  author’s  “  Manual  of  Self-Heal¬ 
ing.”  They  are  easily  observed  ;  and,  relied  upon, 
they  cannot  fail  of  securing  for  you  a  better  state  of 
health,  and  all  that  happiness  which  comes  within  the 
sphere  of  your  constitution. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


NO  ROYAL  ROAD. 

Humanity  had  long  ago  supposed 
That  Science  had  no  “  royal  road  ”  proposed, 
As  by  some  still  believed  ; 

Knowledge  assumed,  in  despite  of  all  thought, 
Is  “ glory”  by  all  the  mystics  sought ; 

Hence  they  are  still  deceived. 


This  “  royal  road  ”  is  the  “narrow  way”  of  the  Bible. 
It  is  travelled  by  all  the  priests,  ancient  and  modern. 
Emanuel  Swedenborg,  A.  J.  Davis,  and  all  who  act  as 
mediums  between  us  and  man’s  condition  after  death, 
travel  a  “  royal  road.”  But  claims  so  extraordinary  as 
to  “visions  and  revelations”  have  never  been  admitted 
by  the  human  race  ;  and  only  a  few  pages  will  be  nec¬ 
essary  for  doing  justice  to  this  feature  of  our  subject. 

The  case  of  Swedenborg  may  be  admitted  as  extraor¬ 
dinary,  chiefly  because  he  exceeded  nearly  all  others, 
since  the  trances  of  St.  Paul,  in  his  claims  as  to  his 
nearness  to  “God,”  and  his  having  received  his  “reve¬ 
lations”  directly  from  the  lips  of  Omniscience.  I  do 
not  suppose  that  he  was  “deranged,”  in  the  sense  this 
term  is  generally  used,  nor  was  he  “  inspired,”  as  he 
and  his  disciples  have  imagined.  Here  is  his  own  esti¬ 
mate  of  himself :  — 


62 


NO  ROYAL  ROAD. 


63 


“  By  being  in  the  spirit  is  meant  a  state  of  mind  separate 
from  the  body ,  and,  because  in  that  state  the  prophets  saw 
such  things  as  exist  in  the  spiritual  world ,  therefore  that  is 
called  the  vision  of  God.  Their  state,  then,  was  such  as  that 
of  spirits  themselves,  and  angels,  in  that  world.  In  that  state, 
the  spirit  of  man,  like  his  mind,  as  to  sight,  may  be  trans¬ 
ported  from  place  to  place,  the  body  remaining  in  its  own. 
This  is  the  state  in  which  I  have  now  been  for  twenty-six  years, 
with  this  difference,  —  that  I  have  been  in  the  spirit ,  and  at  the 
same  time  in  the  body ,  and  only  several  times  out  of  the 
body.” —  True  Ch.  Rel.,  157. 

“This  manifestatmi  of  the  Lord,  and  intromission  into  the 
spiritual  world,  is  more  excellent  tha?i  all  miracles  ;  but  it  has 
not  been  granted  to  any  one  since  the  creation  of  the  world, 
as  it  has  been  to  me.  To  me  it  has  been  granted  to  be  in 
both  spiritual  and  natural  light  at  the  same  time  ;  and  hereby 
I  have  been  privileged  to  see  the  wonderful  things  of  heaven, 
to  be  in  company  with  angels  just  as  I  am  with  men,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  to  pursue  truths,  in  the  light  of  truth,  and 
thus  to  perceive  and  be  gifted  with  them,  —  consequently, 
to  be  led  by  the  Lord.  — Hobarfs  Life  of  Swed.,  p.  42. 

In  many  other  portions  of  his  writings  he  makes  the 
same  representations,  affirming  that  he  was  instructed, 
or  taught,  by  the  “  Lord  alone,”  and  in  such  a  sense  that 
he  did  not  or  could  not  have  erred  (“  Sp.  Diary,” 
1647)  1  and  in  this  sentiment  the  receivers  of  his  writ¬ 
ings  fully  concur.  (“Davis  Revelations,”  Revealed  by 
Professor  Bush  and  Mr.  Barrett,  pp.  14,  15).  Hence 
it  is  obvious  that  Swedenborg  uses  the  term  “  miracle  ” 
in  its  common  acceptation  ;  and,  if  so,  then  he  repre¬ 
sents  his  “Revelations”  as  above  Nature,  above  and 
beyond  the  natural  developments  of  mind ;  as  some¬ 
thing  for  which  the  laws  of  the  human  mind  are  not 
sufficient  to  account,  or  results  which  do  not  come 
within  the  reach  of  those  laws  which  develop ,  disturb , 
or  control  the  human  mind.  In  this  respect,  it  is  cer¬ 
tain  that  Swedenborg  misapprehended  the  nature  of  his 


own  case. 


64 


IDEOLOGY. 


There  was  nothing  really  supernatural  or  “  more  ex¬ 
cellent,”  or  above  the  “miraculous,”  in  the  visions  of 
Swedenborg.  That  his  organs  of  Marvellousness  and 
Causality  were  developed  in  a  most  extraordinary  de¬ 
gree,  his  writings  abundantly  prove ;  and  this  fact,  of 
itself,  proves  that  his  mind  was  not  always  in  a  per¬ 
fectly  healthy  state  :  — 

“  I  was  once  seized,  suddenly,  with  a  disease  that  seemed 
to  threaten  my  life  ;  my  whole  head  was  oppressed  with  pain ,  a 
pestilential  “  smoke  ”  was  let  in  from  the  great  city  called 
Sodom  (Apoc.  xi.  8)  ;  half  dead  with  severe  anguish,  I  ex¬ 
pected  every  moment  to  be  my  last :  thus  I  lay  in  bed  for  the 
space  of  three  days  and  a  half.  My  spirit  was  reduced  to 
this  state,  and  consequently  my  body.  Then  I  heard  about 
me  the  voices  of  persons  saying,”  &c. — Brief  Exp.  Doc. 
N.  Ch.,  p.  73. 

“  Immediately  on  this,  I  was  made  sensible  of  a  remarkable 
change  in  the  brain ,  and  of  a  powerful  operation  thence  pro¬ 
ceeding.  —  Ea?'ths  in  the  Uni.,  p.  30. 

Now,  to  me  the  marvel  is,  not  that  Swedenborg  does 
complain  of  disturbances  in  his  cerebral  system  like  the 
above,  but,  in  view  of  his  incessant  mental  labors,  con¬ 
tinued  for  so  many  years,  the  wonder  is  that  he  did  not 
suffer  and  complain  far  more  than  he  seems  to  have 
done.  But  the  facts,  so  explicitly  stated  by  himself, 
that  he  was  at  times  sick ,  that  his  nervous  system  was 
disturbed ,  prove  that  his  mental  states  were  disturbed  ; 
and,  this  proved,  we  are  under  no  necessity  of  attempt¬ 
ing  to  show,  in  detail,  the  errors  into  which  he  evidently 
fell  with  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  mind  ;  nor  is  it 
necessary  to  show  that  he  was  deceived  when  he  attrib¬ 
uted  his  toothache  to  “evil  spirits”  (Hobart’s  “Life,” 
p.  216),  as  he  may  have  been  at  various  other  times 
when  he  thought  himself  in  communication  with  the 


NO  ROYAL  ROAD. 


65 


spiritual  world.  For  we  have  only  to  admit  that  the 
toothache  is  produced  by  the  Devil,  or  supernatural 
agency,  and  it  must  follow,  of  course,  that  every  other 
result,  every  other  state,  emotion,  sensation,  or  volition 
peculiar  to  man,  is  likewise  induced  in  the  same  way. 

“The  Poughkeepsie  Seer.” — Such  is  the  title  with 
which  Mr.  Andrew  Jackson  Davis  dubbed  himself,  forty 
years  ago,  on  commencing  his  “ clairvoyant  career.” 
Then  it  was  that  Mr.  Davis  inscribed  “  clairmativeness  ” 
on  the  banner  he  spread  to  the  breeze,  as  the  term  for 
the  theory  he  was  to  inculcate,  and  when  he  approved 
and  taught  the  truthfulness  of  Christianity,  and  assumed 
for  himself  perfect  knowledge  of  the  past  and  the  future. 
(See  his  Lectures  on  Clairmativeness ,  or  Human  Magnet¬ 
ism, ^  New  York:  printed  by  Searing  and  Pratt,  1845.) 

It  would  scarcely  be  considered  necessary  to  drink 
a  barrel  of  wine  in  order  to  ascertain  whether  it  were 
sour  or  not !  And  although  Mr.  Davis  is  the  author  of 
a  number  of  volumes  containing  many  excellencies  in 
which,  no  doubt,  we  should  all  agree,  yet  nevertheless, 
in  estimating  the  relation  that  he  really  sustains  to 
humanity,  we  must  not  ignore  what  he  has  affirmed  of 
himself,  and  especially  as  to  his  sources  of  knowledge. 
Mr.  Davis  commenced  his  public  career  as  a  clairvoyant , 
as  having  “  perfect  knowledge  of  the  past  and  the  fu¬ 
ture  ”  !  Hence  he  has  always  claimed,  on  his  own 
behalf,  to  be  a  “royal  road”  to  knowledge.  Nor  is 
it  marvellous  that  those  who  admit  this  claim  should 
become  his  disciples  ;  and  here  it  may  be  sufficient  if 
I  quote  from  one  of  his  volumes  in  support  of  what 
is  here  stated.  In  1847  I  published  a  volume  on  my 
theory  of  Ideology  (“  Pathetism  ”),  in  which  I  reviewed 
Mr.  Davis’s  utterances  at  length.  On  meeting  Mr. 


66 


IDEOLOGY. 


Davis  soon  after  at  Mr.  Robinson’s,  then  warden  of  the 
Massachusetts  State’s  Prison,  I  presented  him  with  a 
copy  of  my  book,  when  I  made  to  him  the  remark  that 
“  I  had  criticised  him  in  that  volume,  but  I  entertained 
the  hope  that  he  would  progress  so  much  by  the  time 
I  should  publish  a  second  edition  of  that  work  that  I 
should  feel  justified  in  leaving  out  all  my  criticisms  of 
A.  J.  Davis.” 

Mr.  Davis  took  my  book  and  held  it  between  both 
his  hands,  and  said  to  me  :  “  When  I  want  to  know 
the  nature,  the  scope,  and  design  of  any  book,  I  do  not 
have  to  read  it  ;  but  I  hold  it  in  my  hands,  as  you  see, 
and  thus  I  obtain  all  I  need  to  know  of  it.” 

A  few  years  after,  Mr.  Davis  published  a  number  of 
volumes  entitled  “  The  Great  Harmonia,”  and  I  have 
now  before  me  the  third  volume,  “  The  Seer,  concern¬ 
ing  the  Seven  Mental  States.  New  York  :  J.  S.  Redfield, 
Fowler  and  Wells,  1852.”  In  this  volume,  page  210, 
Mr.  Davis  makes  a  s/iozv  of  a  “  confession  ”  of  his  ad¬ 
mitting  the  justice,  in  my  criticisms,  in  having  claimed 
for  himself  perfect  knowledge.  He  says  :  — 

“In  this  connection  I  am  impressed,  in  order  to  perfect  our 
investigation,  to  bring  before  you  the  professions  which  the 
speaker  once  made  to  perfect  knowledge.  This  claim  I  put 
forth  while  very  young,  in  the  commencement  of  my  mag¬ 
netic  field,  in  consequence  of  two  mental  conditions  :  First, 
my  ignorance ;  second,  the  far-reaching  vision  which  I  had  of 
the  broad  territories  of  this  earth,  that  I,  in  the  year  1844,  in 
a  brief  lecture  [on  Clairmativeness]  made  the  following  decla¬ 
ration  to  infallible  and  perfect  knowledge  :  — 

“  ‘  I  possess  the  power  of  extending  my  vision  throughout 
all  space  ;  can  see  things  past,  present,  and  to  come.  I  have 
now  arrived  at  the  highest  degree  of  knowledge  which  the 
human  mind  is  capable  of  acquiring.  I  am  master  of  the 
general  sciences,  can  speak  all  languages,  impart  instruction 
upon  all  those  deep,  hidden  things  in  Nature  which  the  world 


NO  ROYAL  ROAD. 


67 


has  not  been  able  to  solve,  &c.’  Now,  I  confess  this  decla¬ 
ration,  as  Professor  G.  Bush  would  say,  certainly  has  the  air 
of  being  uttered  by  an  honest  man,  —  yes,  honest,  but  yet  at 
the  same  time  profoundly  ignorant.” 

And  in  reading  this  so-called  “  confession,  ”  we  must 
bear  in  mind  that  Mr.  Davis  is  speaking  of  his  “clair¬ 
voyance  ”  when  he  began  his  clairvoyant  career. 
Then,  six  years  after,  when  in  the  same  state  of  clair¬ 
voyance  > ,  he  pronounces  his  “clairvoyance  of  1844”  a 
state  of  “profound  ignorance.”  But  he  need  not  refer 
to  Professor  Bush,  as  this  is  not  a  question  as  to  the 
honesty  or  the  sincerity  of  any  one  ;  and  it  is  sufficient 
for  me  to  show  that  clairvoyance,  neither  in  his  case 
nor  in  any  other,  is  a  “royal  road”  to  knowledge. 
TJiere  are  no  degrees  in  “clairvoyance.”  It  is  vision 
without  the  external  eyes,  or  nothing!  Nor  is  this  all  in 
Mr.  Davis’s  case.  Now,  turn  to  this  same  volume,  page 
265,  and  you  will  find  what  this  “  confession  ”  amounts 
to.  Mr.  Davis  says  he  was  profoundly  ignorant  when 
he  had  assumed  by  his  clairvoyance  to  “  look  throughout 
all  space  ;  and  yet,  on  the  page  above  named,  you  will 
find  that  by  his  clairvoyance  in  1852  his  claims  exceed 
those  of  1844,  for  he  says  :  — 

“  In  spontaneous  clairvoyance,  which  is  identified  with  the 
state  which  is  induced  by  the  magnetic  processes,  the  eyes  of 
the  mind ,  the  internal  powers  of  vision ,  are  wonderfully 
strengthened  and  enlarged  ;  and  there  are  no  boundaries  of  time 
or  space  which  can  circumscribe  their  penetration .” 

Thus  it  seems  in  1844,  Mr.  Davis’s  clairvoyance  saw 
the  bounds  of  space,  as  he  could  look  “  throughout  all 
space.”  But  that  claim  he  repudiated  in  1852,  and 
then  in  the  same  volume,  and  in  the  exercise  of  the 
same  “clairvoyance,”  he  claims  now  to  have  “clair- 


68 


IDEOLOGY. 


voyant  eyes  ”  big  enough  to  see  beyond  all  the  bounds 
of  “time  and  space”  This  is  the  “royal  road”  to 
knowledge  that  “  Andrew  J.  Davis,  the  Poughkeepsie 
Seer,”  has  continuously  travelled  since  he  bent  over 
upon  one  side,  in  a  state  of  trance,  in  1844.  And  upon 
that  same  side  he  continued  to  bend  over  when  en¬ 
tranced,  and  uttered  the  “recitations”  that  he  calls 
“Divine,”  which  he  has  published  in  a  large  8mo.  vol¬ 
ume  of  eight  hundred  pages. 

I  say  nothing  of  that  “clairvoyance”  that  can  en¬ 
dorse  the  notions  of  Mesmer  in  respect  to  “magnet¬ 
ism.”  But  I  may  refer  to  the  fact  that  in  this  volume, 
containing  this  “confession,”  Mr.  Davis  has  made 
eight  quotations  from  my  work  on  “  Pathetism  ”  that  I 
gave  him  when  he  was  in  Charlestown,  Massachusetts, 
in  1847,  —  an  incident  not  of  much  importance,  nor 
should  I  have  alluded  to  it  but  for  the  fact  that  Mr. 
Davis  failed  in  giving  me  the  usual  credit  for  the  mat¬ 
ter  that,  on  pages  92,  93,  96,  101,  102,  136,  and  159,  he 
has  quoted  from  my  volume. 

Subjective  Visions.  — That  such  states  are  reliable 
as  sources  of  information,  it  would  be  difficult  to  show. 
It  cannot  be  proved  that  the  “  wild  beasts  and  creeping 
things”  seen  by  Peter  when  entranced  were  objective. 
No  medium  who  has  the  vision  can  demonstrate,  from 
first  to  last,  that  there  is  any  object  actually  seen  out¬ 
side  the  medium’s  own  brains.  “  Visions  ”  we  have  in 
abundance,  as  nothing  is  more  common  than  dreams. 
Now,  while  it  cannot  be  shown  that  these  visions  are 
of  any  thing  outside  of  the  medium’s  own  mind,  it 
seems  to  me  the  defect  is  fatal  to  the  claims  so  often 
set  up  in  respect  to  their  origin. 

These  views,  when  tested  by  the  evidence  which  the 


NO  ROYAL  ROAD.  69 

visions  themselves  afford,  are  found  to  be  unreliable 
and  contradictory.  Thus  :  — - 

(1.)  Take  any  one  vision  as  a  specimen,  and  it  will 
be  found  to  be  intangible,  inaudible,  invisible,  and  un¬ 
real,  in  such  a  sense  that  no  principle  of  science  or 
philosophy  can  make  anything  more  of  it  than  a  mere 
dream. 

(2.)  Different  visions,  by  different  media,  of  one  and 
the  same  thing,  do  not  agree.  They  do  not  agree  when 
speaking  of  matters  not  cognizable  to  our  external 
senses,  and  hence  they  cannot  be  relied  upon  any  more 
than  we  can  rely  upon  ordinary  dreaming. 

(3).  It  is  a  suspicious  circumstance,  that  these 
visions  are  never  of  tangible  matters,  that  can  be 
tested  by  a  third  party.  They  are  always  of  fanciful 
and  imaginary  scenes,  of  which  nothing  can  be  deter¬ 
mined  by  the  ordinary  rules  of  evidence.  An  ignis 
fatuns  is  an  interesting  object  for  philosophical  inquiry 
as  to  its  elements  and  causes  ;  but  it  is  not  to  be  fol¬ 
lowed  and  relied  upon  as  a  guide  in  the  journey  of  life. 
And  thus  of  visions  :  they  have  their  pathology,  and, 
as  a  matter  of  science,  it  may  be  interesting  to  study 
their  causes.  And  while  I  neither  deny  nor  affirm  as 
to  what  “  spirits  ”  can  do,  I  am  nevertheless  bound  to 
declare,  that,  as  far  as  any  thing  satisfactory  to  philos¬ 
ophy  has  been  determined  in  respect  to  their  origin, 
they  have  never,  as  yet,  been  traced  beyond  the  func¬ 
tions  of  the  human  brain.  To  dream  is  precisely  what 
the  brains  were  made  for  doing  in  sleep,  and  to  have 
visions  is  the  abnormal  work  of  those  physical  organs 
when  in  certain  conditions  of  morbid  activity. 

(4.)  All  persons,  without  any  exception,  who  can  be 
entranced,  or  who  can  be  more  or  less  “impressed” 


7o 


IDEOLOGY. 


by  artificial  processes,  may  be  made  to  “see  visions.” 
This  I  know  from  an  experience  of  many  years.  And, 
what  is  worthy  of  remark  here  is,  that,  among  the 
numerous  mediums  who  assume  to  have  “spiritual 
visions,”  I  have  never  found  one  whom  I  could  en¬ 
trance  that  could  discriminate  between  the  visions 
which  I  produced  and  those  which  they  imagined  to 
be  induced  by  departed  spirits.  I  have  tested  a  large 
number  of  media  in  this  way,  and  have  always  found 
that  they  could  never  distinguish  the  visions  which  I 
induced  by  hallucination  from  those  which  they  were 
sure  must  be  induced  by  “spirits.” 

I  have  elsewhere  remarked  upon  the  inability  of  this 
class  of  persons  to  judge  as  to  the  rationale  of  the  “in¬ 
fluences  ”  which  were  exerted  over  them.  Even  those 
who  call  themselves  “inspirational”  are  inspired  by 
ideas,  so  that  they  really  believe  the  “influence”  to  have 
come  from  Dr.  Franklin,  Galen,  Lord  Bacon,  or  some 
other  imaginary  “spirits.”  I  have  caused  speeches 
and  sermons  to  be  delivered,  also  music,  vocal  and  in¬ 
strumental,  and  prayers  to  be  offered,  by  entranced 
persons,  which  the  mediums  at  the  time  have  attributed 
to  some  “guardian  spirit,”  or  some  “Matthew  Byles,” 
“Lorenzo  Dow,”  or  “Cotton  Mather.” 

Thus  Perkins  with  his  tractors,  Mesmer  with  his 
“magnetized  water,”  Greatrakes  with  his  “passes” 
upon  the  lame,  and  the  mediums  of  the  present  day 
with  their  “hands  on  the  sick,”  have  all  attracted  at¬ 
tention  by  the  cures  they  have  performed.  The  multi¬ 
tude  look  on  and  wonder  “by  what  authority  ”  or  “by 
what  power  ”  these  things  are  done.  Thus  it  was  in 
witnessing  the  demonstrations  in  my  public  lectures. 
The  question  was  ever  put  to  me  as  to  how  these 


NO  ROYAL  ROAD. 


7 1 


things  were  done.  And  my  answer  was  always  the 
same,  frankly  and  candidly  given,  —  that  the  “  won¬ 
ders  ”  they  saw  were  self-induced  in  all  cases,  and  by 
the  nervous  forces,  controlled  by  the  law  of  selfhood, 
inherent  alike  in  each  mind.  The  results  vary  as  our 
temperaments  vary ;  and  when  I  have  affirmed  that 
precisely  one  and  the  same  “  influence”  entranced  the 
people  which  brought  them  to  my  lecture,  I  have  found 
now  and  then  a  few  who  could  understand  and  believe 
what  I  said.  I  invite  the  people  to  come  to  my  lectures, 
and  they  come.  I  tell  them  that  I  will  entrance  them, 
and  the  trance  follows  as  the  result  of  what  I  say.  Yet 
after  all  these  explanations,  so  freely  and  fully  given, 
it  has  been  a  common  occurrence  for  persons  in  my 
audiences  to  attribute  the  “influence,”  “the  electrical 
currents,”  to  my  handkerchief,  to  my  watch-key,  and 
to  the  head  of  my  cane,  on  which  I  requested  them  to 
look,  while  proceeding  with  my  remarks. 

A  volume  might  be  filled  with  cases  of  “  visions  ”  as 
real  as  those  of  Davis  or  the  Swedish  Seer,  and  occur¬ 
ring  in  parties  who  did  not  attribute  them  to  any  power 
outside  of  their  own  brains  ;  and  to  one  well-known  and 
remarkable  case  I  will  here  allude.  It  is  fully  reported 
in  Jung  Stilling’s  “Theory  of  Pneumatology.”  The 
Italian  philosopher  Nicoli  gives  a  minute  account  of 
the  numerous  “apparitions”  and  “ghosts”  he  saw, 
and  which  he  accounts  for  by  the  “  operations  ”  of  his 
own  brains.  He  did  not  recognize  them,  as  the  modern 
mediums  do,  as  “  departed  ”  spirits  ;  and  if  we  were  to 
admit  that  what  the  medium  sees  is  really  objective, 
it  is  here,  and  therefore  cannot  be  said  to  be  a  spirit 
“departed.”  If  they  have  departed,  they  have  no  busi¬ 
ness  here,  as  they  belong  to  another  world. 


72 


IDEOLOGY. 


Certainly,  no  real  ghost  ever  “  materialized  ”  more 
definitely  to  a  modern  medium  than  Nicoli’s  “spec¬ 
tres”  appeared  to  him  ;  and,  if  sights  such  as  these  con¬ 
stitute  visions,  all  persons  must  be  more  or  less  likely 
to  have  them,  inasmuch  as  all  are  liable  to  derange¬ 
ments  of  the  cerebral  functions.  Those  of  a  certain 
temperament  always  experience  more  or  less  of  them, 
and  others  “  see  visions  ”  only  when  artificially  wrought 
upon  and  the  mental  functions  are  abnormally  excited. 
The  late  Theodore  Parker  gave  me  the  following  ac¬ 
count  of  his  own  experience  :  When  in  college,  as  he 
was  one  day  passing  over  the  bridge  to  Cambridge,  he 
saw,  a  few  yards  before  him,  what  appeared  to  be  a 
stalwart  negro  walking  in  the  same  direction.  Occa¬ 
sionally  the  spectre  turned  around  and  laughed,  and 
finally  it  bestrode  the  fence  and  disappeared.  The 
form  was  transparent,  and  while  Mr.  Parker  was  en¬ 
gaged  in  its  examination  he  noticed  that  he  could  see 
through  it  distinctly  objects  beyond.  He  believed 
these  “appearances  ”  to  have  been  caused  by  the  severe 
draughts  he  had  been  making  upon  his  nervous  system 
in  the  prosecution  of  his  studies. 

Volumes  might  be  filled  with  similar  accounts  of 
“ghosts”  made  to  appear  subjectively  in  a  similar  man¬ 
ner,  and  from  which  we  learn  how  liable  we  are  to 
nervous  disturbances  which  our  ignorance  and  credulity 
are  always  ready  to  attribute  to  “God,”  “ghosts,”  or 
the  “ Devil, ’’that  are  never  seen  except  when  on  a  “royal 
road.” 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


MENTALITY. 

Sanity,  or  soundness  of  mind,  is  that  state  in  which 
there  is  a  knowledge  of  the  right  and  the  wrong  in 
human  conduct.  It  is  a  consciousness  of  the  life  rela¬ 
tions,  the  source  and  the  authority  for  virtue.  Religion 
is  that  innate  sense  of  obligation  which  binds  us  to  the 
fulfilment  of  these  relations.  It  gives  us  that  moral 
sense  of  what  ought ,  and  what  ought  not ,  to  be  done. 
The  reasoning  faculties  are  perfected  in  this  conscious¬ 
ness  of  obligation,  and  it  is  because  we  find  this  moral 
sense  of  duty,  this  “  higher  law,”  in  these  relations  we 
sustain  to  each  other,  that  humanity  is  so  shocked  at 
their  violation,  when  it  maybe  truly  said,  “Nothing 
to  damnation  canst  thou  add  greater  than  that.” 

The  age  at  which  children  arrive  at  this  conscious¬ 
ness  varies,  of  course  ;  but  it  should  not  prove  difficult 
to  determine  this  question  in  any  given  case.  In  the 
infantile  mind,  as  it  hangs  upon  the  mother’s  breast, 
the  first  dawn  of  this  consciousness  is  in  filial  love, 
whence  comes  all  we  know  of  aspiration,  faith,  and  hope. 
In  this  love  the  child  grows  into  a  consciousness  of  the 
fraternal ,  whence  comes  our  sense  of  obligations  to 
equality,  freedom,  justice,  goodness,  truthfulness.  This 
growth  continued,  and  we  become  conscious  of  the 
wisdom,  the  power,  and  the  authority  of  the  parental, 


73 


74 


IDEOLOGY. 


from  which  there  can  #be  no  appeal.  Thus,  the  first 
consciousness  evolved  in  the  human  mind  is  of  obli¬ 
gation  to  duty,  of  what  ought  or  ought  not  to  be  done. 
Obedience  to  these  duties  is  virtue  and  happiness  ;  their 
violation  is  vice,  crime,  and  misery. 

Insanity  is  a  deterioration  from  this  sound  state  of  the 
mind.  It  is  a  disease,  a  want  of  proportion  in  the 
physical  and  mental  forces,  which  destroys  the  con¬ 
sciousness  as  to  the  right  and  wrong  of  things.  This 
term  is  sometimes  improperly  used  to  signify  any  tem¬ 
porary  delirium  produced  by  fever  or  accident.  But  in 
medical  jurisprudence  it  signifies  an  unsoundness  in 
the  reasoning  faculties  which  has  annihilated  all  con¬ 
sciousness  of  duty  in  the  conduct  of  life.  Insanity, 
therefore,  is  a  state  of  mental  deterioration,  and  an 
abnormal  condition  to  which  the  mind  becomes  reduced 
by  disease. 

Now,  let  us  look  at  the  case  of  a  lad  fourteen  years  of 
age,  at  the  present  time,  before  the  legal  authorities 
for  adjudication,  and  before  the  whole  world  for  horror 
and  deeds  such  as  may  be  well  said  to  “  make  heaven 
weep.”  This  boy  has  confessed  himself  guilty  of  hor¬ 
rible  cruelties  persisted  in  from  year  to  year,  and  finally 
two  children  murdered  in  cold  blood,  and  each  of  his 
victims  younger  than  himself.  In  those  oft-repeated 
crimes  he  manifested  strategy,  secretiveness,  and  the 
control  of  a  murderous  disposition.  There  is  not  a 
particle  of  proof  that  Jesse  H.  Pomeroy’s  mind  had  be¬ 
come  deteriorated  from  a  previously  sounder  state  when 
he  committed  those  cruelties  and  murders,  —  not  a  par¬ 
ticle.  Yet  his  counsel  set  up  the  plea  of  insanity,  and 
they  found  a  number  of  the  medical  profession  who 
testified  as  experts  that  the  boy  was  or  may  have  been 
insane. 


MENTALITY. 


75 


That  plea  was  a  strategic  movement.  Not  familiar 
with  the  anatomy  of  crime,  there  was  no  other  way  to 
account  for  such  strange  conduct  ;  whereas,  the  con¬ 
fessions  which  this  boy  has,  from  the  first,  given  of 
himself,  show  plainly  enough  that  he  was  not  insane. 
He  was  no  more  insane  in  those  murders  than  he 
was  insane  in  all  else  that  he  had  ever  said  or  done. 
The  state  of  mind  in  which  he  performed  those  deeds 
was  normal,  as  really  so  as  when  he  sold  papers  and 
obeyed  his  mother  in  chores  about  the  house.  He  was 
never  insane  in  any  other  acts  ;  and  he  himself  tells  us 
that  he  was  impelled  to  that  conduct  by  his  love  of  it, 
and  nothing  else.  Why,  then,  set  up  a  plea  of  insanity  ? 

In  a  large  proportion  of  these  pleas  they  do  not  seem 
to  have  been  based  upon  a  sound  knowledge  of  the 
pathology'  of  mental  disease  ;  and  here  are  some  of  the 
first  principles  which  require  attention  before  a  plea  of 
insanity  should  be  attempted  :  — 

I.  As  a  general  rule,  insanity  is  confined  to  a  cer¬ 
tain  class  of  temperaments  ;  hence  its  tendency  is  often 
transmitted,  similarly  as  other  forms  of  disease  are 
transmitted,  from  one  generation  to  another.  The 
remedy  for  this  tendency  is  in  a  knowledge  of  this  fact, 
which  may  enable  the  patient  to  use  effectual  methods 
for  avoiding  it.  If  we  suppose  two  elements  inherited, 
one  from  the  father  and  the  other  from  the  mother, 
these  two  united  in  the  offspring  make  a  third,  differing 
from  the  parental,  and  differing  also  from  all  the  ances¬ 
tral  tendencies  of  preceding  generations.  While,  there¬ 
fore,  admitting,  as  we  must,  how  much  the  inherited 
idiosyncrasy  has  to  do  in  the  formation  of  each  char¬ 
acter,  yet  here  is  the  solid  ground  of  aspiration,  faith, 
and  hope,  which  is  open  to  all  temperaments,  and  to  all 


76 


IDEOLOGY. 


grades  of  human  character.  You  are  under  no  neces¬ 
sity  of  stumbling  in  the  precise  spot  where  you  see  that 
another  has  fallen,  and  who  erred,  it  might  have  been, 
for  the  want  of  the  knowledge  that  you  yourself  now 
possess.  “Knowledge  is  power.” 

II.  The  temperament  that  disposes  to  somnam¬ 
bulism,  the  trance,  and  visions,  is  more  liable  to  insan¬ 
ity.  There  is  a  diathesis  for  dreaming  when  the  patient 
is  unable  to  distinguish  between  dreaming  and  the 
normal  waking  thoughts.  Psychometry,  spirit-mediums, 
and  clairvoyants  have  their  rankest  growth  in  this  kind 
of  soil. 

III.  In  this  class  of  temperaments  insanity  is  often 
superinduced  by  the  persistent  intensity  of  thought 
upon  any  given  idea,  true  or  false,  and  the  contempla¬ 
tion  of  which  gratifies  the  love  of  gain,  the  love  of 
secretiveness,  or  the  love  of  the  cruel  and  murderous. 
If  the  Pomeroy  lad  was  made  insane  by  the  intense 
love  he  felt  for  murder,  does  this  free  him  from  guilt  ? 
It  seems  to  me  that  this  is  a  dangerous  doctrine  to  be 
taught  in  our  courts  of  justice.  Yet  cases  have  occurred 
where  in  trials  for  murder  a  verdict  of  acquittal  has 
been  rendered  on  the  ground  of  insanity,  and  when  all 
that  the  evidence  went  to  prove  was  simply  this,  namely, 
that  if  there  was  any  insanity  it  had  been  superinduced 
by  contemplating  and  encompassing  the  very  crime 
that  had  been  committed. 

In  1842,  P.  Spencer,  or  Spence,  a  mesmeric  lecturer 
in  New  Jersey,  shot  his  wife  dead,  and  he  was  acquitted 
on  the  plea  of  insanity.  But  it  was  not  shown  when 
or  how  his  mind  had  deteriorated  ;  and  if  he  was  insane 
when  he  fired  that  fatal  shot,  he  was  always  insane,  and 
has  remained  so  to  this  day. 


MENTALITY. 


77 


A  few  years  since  a  case  of  murder  was  tried  in 
Albany,  I  think,  where  the  prisoner  was  acquitted  on 
the  ground  of  insanity,  when  the  aforesaid  insanity 
was  only  apparent  at  the  moment  of  firing  the  deadly 
shot.  The  murderer  was  admitted  to  have  been  always 
sane  before  and  after  that  identical  moment.  So  that 
when  a  Ku-Klux  or  blackleg  determines  upon  the 
“taking-off”  of  a  neighbor  to  gratify  his  own  love  of 
murder  and  money,  he  has  only  to  contemplate  the 
bloody  deed  with  sufficient  earnestness,  and,  if  detected 
after  its  perpetration,  he  may  be  acquitted  on  the 
ground  of  insanity  ! 

There  are  other  similar  occasions  where  medical 
testimony  is  required  in  courts  of  law,  such  as  cases 
where  attempts  are  made  on  the  ground  of  alleged 
insanity  for  invalidating  a  marriage  contract  ;  cases  in 
which  attempts  are  made  on  this  ground  to  invalidate 
the  legal  operation  of  testamentary  dispositions  of  prop¬ 
erty  ;  cases  of  insanity  alleged  as  a  reason  for  the 
legal  deprivation  of  one’s  liberty  under  the  pretence 
of  preventing  him  from  mischief,  or  putting  him  under 
medical  treatment  ;  and  also  in  commissions  issued  by 
legal  authority  de  lunatico  inquirendo ,  with  a  view  of 
ascertaining  whether  or  no  the  party  is  of  sound  mind, 
and  fully  competent  for  attending  to  his  own  business. 

The  question  in  all  these  cases  certainly  comes  within 
the  purview  of  psychology  and  ideology  ;  as  while  the 
former  gives  us  the  laws  that  inhere  in  the  human  soul, 
the  latter  explains  the  philosophy  of  self-induction ,  and 
shows  how  it  is  that  artificial  excitements  and  changes 
are  made  in  the  nervous  system  which  may  result  in 
insanity.  A  knowledge  of  psychology  enables  us  to 
trace  disturbances  in  the  healthy  condition  of  the 


78 


IDEOLOGY. 


human  mincl  to  suggested  ideas,  to  the  laws  of  associa¬ 
tion  and  the  laws  of  sympathetic  imitation,  and  all 
resulting  in  self-induction.  Insanity  in  certain  tem¬ 
peraments  occurs  from  “ revival”  excitements,  or  any 
one  of  many  causes.  But  shall  it  be  affirmed  as  an  ex¬ 
cuse  for  crime  in  cases  where  no  previous  deterioration 
of  the  mind  can  be  shown  to  have  been  manifested  t 

What  has  always  been  the  leading  disposition  and 
the  proclivities  of  the  human  mind  cannot  be  known 
until  they  have  been  tested  by  opportunities.  How 
else  can  it  be  known  what  the  mind  can  or  will  do, 
how  much  strain  it  can  bear  in  any  given  case  ? 

The  opportunity  makes  the  thief.  The  opportunity 
is  the  temptation  to  crime.  It  is  the  power  that  nerves 
the  arm  which  strikes  the  fatal  blow.  But  it  is  only  on 
such  and  such  temperaments  that  opportunities  can  be 
felt  as  temptations. 

Burke  has  truly  said  that  “  no  species  of  property 
can  be  safe  when  it  becomes  an  object  large  enough  to 
tempt  the  cupidity  of  avaricious  power.”  The  opportu¬ 
nity  for  avarice  is  a  power.  But  knowing  beforehand 
what  the  temperament  or  the  disposition  is',  we  may 
know  whether  an  opportunity  for  crime  would  prove  a 
temptation  in  that  case.  These  differences  in  tem¬ 
peraments  are  radical,  and  they  were  fully  recognized 
by  the  divine  poet,  —  that  poet  for  all  future  time,  from 
whose  living  words  I  have  already  quoted.  And  here 
again  :  — 

“Lust,  though  to  a  radiant  angel  linked, 

Will  satiate  itself  in  a  celestial  bed,  and  prey  on  garbage  ; 

But  virtue  never  will  be  moved 

Though  lewdness  court  it  in  the  garb  of  heaven.” 

As  the  integral  elements  are  proportioned  before  and 


MENTALITY. 


79 


after  birth,  so  the  temperament  and  the  character  are 
formed.  Hence  it  so  often  has  attracted  attention 
when  the  first  traits  of  disposition  manifested  by  a  child 
partake  so  much  of  the  false,  the  thievish,  and,  now 
and  then,  of  the  murderous.  The  remedy  against  these 
tendencies  is  in  education  —  appropriate,  persistent 
education. 

As  high  medical  authority,  perhaps,  as  could  be 
quoted  on  this  subject,  Dr.  Forbes  Winslow,  formerly 
President  of  the  Medical  Society  of  London,  says :  — 

“  When  asylums  for  the  insane  are  entrusted  exclusively  to 
physicians  acquainted  with  the  anatomy  of  the  human  mind, 
or,  in  other  words,  with  the  science  of  medical  psychology, 
they  will  then  realize  the  conception  of  the  great  Esquirol, 
and  become  instruments  of  cure,  and  in  the  hands  of  the 
skilful  physician  most  powerful  therapeutics  against  mental 
maladies  Letts  omian  Lectures  on  Insanity ,  page  17. 

And,  if  this  knowlege  be  of  the  highest  importance 
to  physicians,  so  it  is  also  for  the  legal  profession,  and 
most  of  all  to  parents  and  all  who  may  become  such. 
All  should  understand  something  of  the  primordial  laws 
of  human  existence,  the  conditions  and  associations 
which  make  the  temperaments  ;  and,  especially,  with 
what  proportions  the  mental  faculties  should  be  balanced 
in  each  case ;  what  is  deficient,  what  in  excess,  and 
what  constitutes  a  healthy,  harmonious  state  of  the 
mind.  Or,  if  it  have  been  disturbed,  what  has /reduced 
or  Educed  that  disturbance  ?  Has  it  been  caused  by 
friction  in  the  mental  apparatus,  self-induced,  or  is  it 
from  some  association  or  idea  suggested  from  outside  ? 
When  and  how  has  it  occurred  ?  Has  the  normal  state 
of  the  mind  been  interfered  with  so  as  to  deteriorate 
the  reasoning  faculties  from  a  healthy  condition  ? 


8o 


IDEOLOGY. 


On  no  subject,  perhaps,  connected  with  mental 
science  has  so  great  an  error  prevailed  among  Chris¬ 
tians  as  that  in  respect  to  the  human  will.  This 
fallacy  has  been  based  upon  the  assumption  of  the  con¬ 
vertibility,  or,  I  should  say,  the  destructibility,  of  the 
human  will.  The  human  will  is  but  another  word  for 
human  love,  or  desire,  choice,  disposition.  Are  we  for 
one  moment  to  admit  the  possibility  of  annihilation  ? 
Then,  it  is  not  true  that  the  elementary  principle  can 
be  destroyed  which  evolves  love,  desire,  disposition, 
and  choice.  The  executive  ability  in  each  mind  or  in 
each  physical  system  is  not  the  will.  One  may  exist 
without  the  other.  When  the  two  unite  in  one  person, 
as  in  the  case  of  Dr.  Winship  of  Boston,  they  generate 
a  force  sufficient  to  lift  two  thousand  pounds  or  more. 
This  same  error  has  prevailed,  also,  under  the  auspices 
of  “  mesmerism  ”  and  “  modern  mediumism  ;  ”  whereas 
the  will  is  free  in  this  sense  that  one  will  cannot  be 
controlled  by  another  will. 

One  individual  cannot  annihilate  another  personality. 
It  seems  not  to  have  occurred  to  the  advocates  of  this 
false  idea  about  the  “control”  of  the  humari  will,  that 
this  very  idea  was  the  germ  of  witchcraft,  —  that 
gigantic  combination  of  fanaticism  and  folly  which 
numbered  its  murders  of  men,  women,  and  children 
by  uncounted  thousands,  and  its  votaries  by  millions. 
And  these  delusions  and  murders  would  be  generated 
at  the  present  day  by  these  same  silly  notions  about 
the  human  will,  were  it  not  for  the  general  information 
that  everywhere  prevails,  and  which  renders  witchcraft, 
with  its  untold  horrors,  impossible. 

A  force  that  could  control  the  human  will  for  an 
instant  of  time  would  be  a  power  sufficient  to  anni- 


MENTALITY. 


8l 


hilate  personal  identity  forever  ;  and  I  venture,  respect¬ 
fully,  to  suggest  to  our  Christian  friends  whether  it 
might  not  be  considered  in  better  taste,  and  certainly 
more  in  accord  with  the  Christian  theory  of  prayer,  if, 
instead  of  referring  us  to  apocryphal  cases  as  proof  of 
the  ‘‘power  of  prayer,”  they  should  try  that  power  upon 
Jesse  H.  Pomeroy?  Certainly  this  is  the  most  marvel¬ 
lous  case  of  the  kind  that  has  ever  occurred,  and  it  is 
sincerely  to  be  hoped  that  the  like  of  it  may  never 
occur  again. 

Mental  Anatomy.  —  There  is  no  human  being  but 
of  whom  more  or  less  good  may  be  spoken.  The 
notion  as  to  total  depravity,  when  affirmed  of  manhood, 
is  not  true.  In  one  function,  or  in  a  series  of  actions 
that  spring  from  avarice,  the  depravity  in  that  behalf 
may  indeed  be  total.  Cupidity  may  so  predominate  in 
a  given  course  of  conduct  as  totally  to  annihilate  mag¬ 
nanimity  and  kindness  in  that  case. 

That  violated  pledge  of  which  I  complain,  I  do  most 
deeply  deplore,  and  far  beyond  any  grief  I  ever  felt  for 
the  loss  of  property.  What  is  a  man  profited  if  he  gain 
a  fortune  by  an  act  of  meanness  ?  The  condition  of  the 
mind  which  can  be  tempted  and  controlled  by  an  op¬ 
portunity  to  do  wrong  is  the  “  evil  ”  most  to  be  deplored. 
For  diseases  in  the  body,  various  and  contradictory 
medicines  are  offered  by  the  doctors  ;  and  ministers  of 
religion  tell  us  that  faith  in  the  blood  of  one  who  died 
nearly  two  thousand  years  ago  is  the  cure  for  all  dis¬ 
eases  of  the  soul. 

In  the  practice  of  medicine  we  find  the  necessity  of 
an  acquaintance  with  anatomy,  physiology,  pathology, 
and  hygiene.  So,  in  treating  of  human  conduct,  we 
need  a  thorough  knowledge  of  mental  anatomy  and 


82 


IDEOLOGY. 


spiritual  ethology.  Any  default  in  the  integrity  of 
character  is  a  disaster  for  which  no  pecuniary  consider¬ 
ation  could  compensate.  What  is  hoarded  wealth  in 
exchange  for  a  breach  of  trust  ?  What  is  'a  fortune 
when  acquired  by  a  mean  action  ?  What  is  the  whole 
world  when  it  comes  as  the  price  of  dishonesty  ?  What 
is  gained  when  a  man  loses  his  integrity  of  character 
by  filling  his  purse  with  gold?  We  need  not  ignore 
the  good  traits  there  may  be  in  the  disposition  of  one 
who  has  done  us  wrong,  albeit  goodness  of  character 
cannot  be  urged  as  a  consideration  for  the  mitigation 
of  damages.  The  pain  is  more  severe  when  the  blow 
comes  from  the  hand  of  one  you  loved.  We  never  trust 
those  whom  we  know  to  be  bad  men  ;  we  rely  only 
upon  those  whom  we  believe  to  be  good.  Those  who 
disappoint  us  most  are  our  own  relations  and  such  as 
we  have  most  loved. 

Opportunities  make  us  known  to  ourselves  and  others. 
All  men  are  good,  truthful,  and  honest  until  a  conven¬ 
ient  opportunity  is  offered  for  them  to  be  otherwise. 
Good  men  themselves  do  not  know  how  much  tempta¬ 
tion  they  can  resist  until  they  have  the  trial  ;  and  it  is 
the  opportunity  that  gives  force  to  temptation, — hence 
the  remark  of  Burke,  before  quoted.  The  first  idea  of 
a  crime  is  often  suggested  by  the  opportunity  for  com¬ 
mitting  it.  The  opportunity  for  a  breach  of  trust  be¬ 
comes  a  force  that  overpowers  the  sense  of  right. 

What  a  good  man  may  do,  therefore,  cannot  be 
determined  beforehand  from  his  conscientiousness 
alone :  we  must  take  into  the  account  his  love  of 
money  and  the  opportunities  afforded  him  for  embezzle¬ 
ment.  It  is  the  wrong-doer  who  knows  the  higher  law 
that  is  to  be  “beaten  with  many  stripes.”  No  one 


MENTALITY. 


83 


can  know  what  he  may  be  tempted  to  do  until  he  has 
felt  the  power  which  a  good  opportunity  presents  to 
him.  The  power  to  do  wrong  generates  the  cupidity, 
and  when  the  crime  is  committed  the  mind  is  in  a 
fitting  condition  for  self-justification.  Self-defence  is 
the  first  law  of.  nature. 

It  is  said  if  our  foresight  were  as  good  as  our  after¬ 
sight  we  should  not  so  often  err.  That  indeed  !  But 
there  is  neither  foresight  nor  aftersight  by  which  we 
may  be  secured  against  the  possibilities  of  temptation. 
We  cannot  foresee  what  would  prove  to  be  a  temptation, 
because  no  human  foresight  can  determine  the  variety 
and  the  nature  of  future  contingencies,  nor  how  they 
will  operate  upon  the  mind  in  any  given  case.  One  I 
trusted  had  it  in  his  power  to  do  me  a  greater  wrong 
than  any  other  human  being  could  do.  When  I  com¬ 
mitted  that  trust  to  him  he  was  honest,  and  so  he  re¬ 
mained  trustworthy  until  the  opportunity  came,  and  to 
its  power  he  yielded.  The  opportunity  could  not  have 
been  foreseen.  Has  he  done  me  a  grievous  wrong  ? 
He  has  done  himself  a  greater  wrong.  The  wrong  to 
me  is  not  to  be  estimated  in  greenbacks.  Unflinching 
fidelity  is  worth  more  to  me  than  silver  or  gold. 

Did  you  say  that  his  conduct  may  have  been  hasty 
and  without  due  consideration  as  to  its  moral  turpitude? 
Yes,  but  the  conduct  which  shades  the  color  of  my 
grief  extends  over  the  space  of  years, — a  period  long 
enough,  surely,  for  me  to  learn  how  much  he  considered 
my  friendship  worth.  Hence,  that  uneasy  feeling  of 
suspense  which  his  conduct  has  produced,  —  a  sense  of 
uncertainty  and  insecurity  like  what  one  may  be  sup¬ 
posed  to  feel  when  he  finds  the  earth  moving  from 
beneath  his  feet  But  all  this  has  come  upon  me  not 


84 


IDEOLOGY. 


through  any  fault  of  my  own  ;  nor  can  the  advantage 
taken  of  that  opportunity  be  justified  by  the  indigence 
of  the  one  who  did  it. 

He  is  in  good  business,  has  a  vigorous  constitution, 
and  his  arm  is  strong.  No  feeling  of  insecurity  dis¬ 
turbs  his  repose.  His  daily  bread  and  the  comforts  of 
his  “second  manhood”  are  provided  for.  This  is  one 
of  the  cases  from  which  we  may  learn  how  great  that 
power  is  which  an  opportunity  exerts  over  the  human 
mind,  a  force  which  ignores  all  the  love  relations  ;  it 
annihilates  friendship  and  sympathy,  filial  affection, 
respect  for  the  infirmities  of  age,  and  the  love  of  justice. 
Nay,  it  generates  meanness, — a  moral  taint  for  which 
science  has  discovered  no  remedy.  Nor  does  it  avail  to 
be  told  that  generosity  is  a  cure  for  breach  of  trust, 
while  we  are  continually  confronted  with  the  fact  that 
generosity,  as  a  medicine,  no  power  on  earth  can  com¬ 
pel  any  man  to  take. 

Do  you  marvel  that  I  should  now  see  a  cloud  of  thick 
darkness  settling  down  upon  my  humble  abode  ?  Like 
the  pall  of  death  the  shades  fall  upon  the  path  my 
weary  feet  are  now  compelled  to  travel.  The  staff  on 
which  from  my  youth  up  I  had  become  so  accustomed 
to  lean,  when  toil-worn  and  full  of  care,  has  by  one  fell 
stroke  been  smitten  from  my  hand.  In  this  distress  I 
call  aloud,  but  no  one  answers,  and  I  hear  nothing  but 
the  echoes  of  my  own  notes  of  sorrow.  Pitfalls  and 
thorns  beset  me  on  every  side,  and  I  raise  my  fading 
eyes  to  heaven  in  vain  for  one  ray  of  light.  Alas  !  that 
fate  should  at  last  have  reached  to  these  thirsty  lips 
a  cup  so  very,  very  bitter  as  this  ! 


CHAPTER  IX. 


IDIOCRASY. 

“  The  subscribers  hereby  certify  that  we  have  witnessed 
numerous  electrical  and  magnetic  experiments  made  by  Dr. 
LaRoy  Sunderland  on  a  patient  totally  blind,  in  some  of 
which  the  effects  of  a  distant  electrical  machine  and  a  steel 
magnet  over  the  human  body,  in  a  very  remarkable  degree, 
were  shown.  We  carefully  examined  these  experiments,  and 
firmly  believe,  from  the  mode  in  which  they  were  conducted 
by  Dr.  Sunderland,  that  these  results  were  as  evidently  un¬ 
expected  by  the  operator  as  any  one  present. 

*  K 

REV.  THOMAS  STRONG. 
JAMES  E.  DUBOIS,  M.D. 

T.  F.  KING,  M.D. 

REV  WILLIAM  BARLOW, 
JOHN  B.  ZABRISKIE,  M.D. 

Flatbush,  N.Y.,  May  14,  1S41.” 


To  the  above  I  add  the  following,  as  it  contains 
names,  both  of  the  clerical  and  the  medical  profession, 
sufficient  to  settle  the  question,  not  only  as  to  the  ex¬ 
periments,  but  also  as  to  the  disturbance  which  both 
these  forms  of  force  produce  in  the  nervous  system  ; 
and  ignorant  those  are  who  apply  them  indiscriminately 
in  the  treatment  of  diseases  :  — 

“  We,  the  subscribers,  have  witnessed  numerous  magnetic 
and  electrical  experiments  performed  by  Dr.  LaRoy  Sunder¬ 
land,  in  which  the  states  of  mind  resembling  monomania, 

85 


86 


IDEOLOGY. 


insanity,  and  madness  were  brought  on  and  removed  in  a 
few  moments  of  time. 


HENRY  H.  SHERWOOD,  M.D. 

REV.  ISAAC  CAVERT. 

REV.  J.  MARTIN. 

O.  S.  FOWLER,  Phrenologist. 

PROF.  ELIZUR  WRIGHT. 

DANIEL  L.  M.  PEIXETTO, 

Pres,  of  the  New  York  Medical  Society. 

New  York,  March  2,  1S42.” 

% 

Certain  I  am  that  no  invalid  who  should  have  wit¬ 
nessed  the  experiments  here  alluded  to  would  ever 
think  of  wearing  any  thing  called  “  magnetic  or  “  elec¬ 
trical”  for  the  cure  of  disease.  That  blind  lady  on 
whom  those  experiments  were  performed  was  twenty- 
eight  years  of  age  and  healthy.  She  could  not  be 
approached  with  a  magnet ;  and  when  I  brought  a  Jarge 
magnetized  disk  within  twenty  feet  of  her  she  became 
convulsed  from  her  head  to  her  feet,  and  fell  insensible 
upon  the  floor.  There  was  a  large  electrical  machine 
in  the  story  below,  a  distance  of  forty  feet  from  where 
she  sat.  At  any  time,  to  turn  that  machine  ever  so 
slightly  disturbed  her,  and  if  turned  rapidly  she  fell 
from  her  chair  in  convulsions.  Two  or  three  times  she 
was  so  much  affected  in  this  way  that  we  became 
frightened,  fearing  that  she  was  dead.  Indeed,  the 
physicians  present  objected  to  have  the  experiments 
repeated  lest  she  might  never  recover.  Now,  bear  in 
mind,  — 

1.  That  a  piece  of  fresh  meat  through  which  a  mag¬ 
netic  current  has  been  passed  decays  the  sooner  on 
this  account. 

2.  The  neurilemma  in  which  the  nerves  are  sheathed 
is  a  non-conductor  of  electricity. 


IDIOCRASY. 


87 


3.  No  appreciable  amount  of  these  forces  is  ever 
generated  by  magnetic  garments  in  the  way  supposed. 

4.  The  vital  forces  are  not  magnetic  nor  electrical. 
The  instinctive  movements  may  evince  phenomena  re¬ 
sembling  the  magnetic ;  but  there  is  no  identity  in  these 
forces,  and  these  experiments  are  sufficient  to  show  the 
fallacy  in  Dr.  H.  H.  Sherwood’s  theory,  entitled,  “The 
Motive-Power  of  Organic  Life  ;  ”  also  of  the  larger  work 
of  Dr.  John  Ashburner,  on  “The  Dynamics  of  Mag¬ 
netism,  Electricity,  Heat,  Light,  Crystallization,  and 
Chemism,  in  their  Relations  to  Vital  P'orce,”  is  mislead¬ 
ing  in  a  multitude  of  its  statements. 

The  nervous  system  is  an  apparatus  upon  which  any 
tune  can  be  played,  and  on  its  phenomena  any  theory 
of  the  unknown  can  be  built  up.  Nor  is  there  any 
limits  to  human  invention.  But  I  have  said  enough, 
I  hope,  to  suggest  the  reason  for  the  remark  that  “  only 
a  few  are  saved.”  Only  a  few  are  ever  converted  in 
any  church  or  in  any  revival  ;  only  a  few  are  priests ; 
only  a  few  are  ever  entranced ;  only  a  few  are  ever 
insane ;  only  a  few  assume  mediumship  between  hu¬ 
manity  and  all  the  dead  of  the  ages  past. 

As  a  rule,  it  will  generally  be  found  that  all  the  so- 
called  “miraculous  cures,”  and  all  who  happen  to  be 
the  first  who  became  victimized  in  a  “religious  revival,” 
and  indeed  all  intelligent  persons  upon  whose  minds 
artificial  impressions  are  made,  are  quite  similar  in 
their  idiosyncrasies.  Nor  does  our  language  seem  to 
contain  terms  enough  for  designating  all  the  varying 
phases  of  the  nervous  and  the  mental  phenomena  ex 
hibited  in  such  cases.  Hence  the  temperament  has  the 
most  control  in  determining  the  impression  that  is 
made.  Whatever  the  idea  may  be  of  what  is  suggested, 


88 


IDEOLOGY. 


it  must  depend  upon  the  inherent  disposition  as  well  as 
the  education  and  the  surrounding  circumstances  at  the 
time. 

The  love  of  the  mysterious,  the  desire  for  some 
benefit  or  notoriety,  are  often  factors  ;  and  then  when 
the  excitement  has  once  been  felt  and  witnessed,  others 
are  drawn  into  it  by  sympathetic  imitation.  But  for 
these  forces,  no  revival  nor  any  mental  epidemic  could 
ever  be  got  up.  When  the  heat,  the  enthusiasm ,  is 
intense  enough,  the  hardest  granite  is  melted  !  Im¬ 
agine,  if  you  can,  what  must  be  the  idiocrasy  of  the 
Popish  nuns  (the  nuns  always,  for  no  men  are  thus 
entranced  in  that  church)  and  their  sensational  sur¬ 
roundings,  when  they  become  cataleptic,  and  upon 
their  own  hands,  faces,  and  feet  they  scratch  the 
“ stigmata  ”  upon  themselves  to  please  their  confessors 
and  their  priests !  Similar  sensational  surroundings 
impress  all  said  to  have  been  “  miraculously  cured”  ! 

It  is  the  love  of  the  mysterious  that  excites  the  hope 
of  benefit  from  drugs,  and  especially  from  magnetism 
and  electricity  ;  whereas  there  is  no  proof  that  these 
forms  of  force  are  identical  with  vitality,  or  that  they 
have  any  effect  when  applied  to  the  sick,  except  it  may 
be  to  excite  the  circulation.  But  there  can  be  no  arti¬ 
ficial  excitements  of  this  kind  equal  to  those  which  the 
organism  is  enabled  by  exercise  to  generate  for  itself  ; 
and  here,  perhaps,  it  may  be  in  place  to  show  how 
egregiously  those  are  deceived  who  wear  what  they 
call  magnetic  clothing  for  the  cure  of  disease. 


CHAPTER  X. 


“CHRISTIAN”  SCIENCE. 

Science  is  classified  ideas  of  all  the  factors,  and  in 
opposition  to  Christianity,  which  is  a  theory  merely  of 
what  no  one  can  know.  Science  adds,  by  experiment, 
to  the  sum  total  of  valid  knowledge.  It  takes  nothing 
for  granted  ;  it  builds  no  theories  of  the  unknown  upon 
phenomena  produced  by  forms  of  force  to  us  unknown. 

Rev.  Henry  W.  Beecher  calls  himself  a  “  Christian 
Evolutionist.”  He  does  not  believe  in  the  Bible  ac¬ 
count  of  the  Jewish  idea  of  God,  nor  in  its  account  of 
the  “fall  of  man.”  He  accepts  the  scientific  idea  of 
evolution,  and  still  calls  himself  a  Christian.  And 
similarly  so  of  W.  H.  H.  Murray,  formerly  of  Park 
Street  Church,  Boston,  but  now  of  Canada.  When  he 
was  an  Orthodox  minister  in  the  “Athens  of  America,” 
a  few  years  ago,  I  noticed  now  and  then  progressive 
ideas  advanced  by  Mr.  Murray  that  encouraged  my 
hope  of  him  in  the  future.  Hence  I  could  not  feel 
surprised  in  reading  the  reports  I  have  seen  of  one  or 
more  of  the  lectures  recently  given  by  this  gentleman 
in  the  city  of  New  York.  These  lectures  show  us  how 
far  Mr.  Murray  has  advanced  in  the  right  direction  to 
emerge  entirely  from  all  the  fogs  of  mysticism.  His 
recent  lectures  show  the  relief  Mr.  Murray  feels  in 
casting  all  blame  upon  theology,  and  giving  up  the  Old 

89 


90 


IDEOLOGY. 


Testament  Scriptures.  In  doing  this,  he  thinks  that 
“ progressive  thought”  and  Christianity  will  “come 
together  in  peace.”  Science  and  the  “vision”  of  Paul, 
when  obfuscated  in  a  dreamy  state  of  trance,  “  will 
join  hands.” 

The  Christianity  that  Mr.  Murray  now  relies  upon 
is  founded  upon  falsehood.  Does  W.  H.  H.  Murray 
believe  in  the  New  Testament  account  of  the  way 
Jesus  was  begotten?  Was  Mary  a  virgin  after  the 
child  Jesus  was  born  ?  Does  Mr.  Murray  believe  that 
Peter,  when  entranced,  really  saw  an  “  opening  in 
heaven”  and  “  beasts  and  creeping  things  ”  coming  out 
of  heaven?  Does  he  believe  the  writers  of  the  New 
Testament  were  inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  That 
John  actually  saw  the  monsters  he  describes,  with  their 
eyes  behind  where  their  tails  should  be?  And  that 
God  mediumized  them,  inspired  them,  without  the 
organ  of  speech,  to  shout  his  praise  “both  day  and 
night,” — and  if  God  has  not  changed,  those  monsters 
are  shouting  still  ? 

Really,  it  does  seem  strange,  indeed,  that  a  man  of 
Mr.  Murray’s  intelligence  could  entertain,  a  hope  that 
science  will  ever  join  hands  with  these  vagaries.  But 
it  is  harder  still  to  account  for  the  fact  that  Mr. 
Murray  should  have  made  the  statement  that  “No 
scientific  man  has  ever  made  an  attack  upon  the  char¬ 
acter  and  teachings  of  Jesus,  and  sceptic  and  teacher 
alike  have  admired  him  and  them.”  Whereas,  scarce 
one  “scientific  man”  out  of  the  many  that  have  written 
against  the  Christianity  of  Jesus,  but  who  has  im¬ 
peached  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  —  such  as  teaching  his 
disciples  to  hate  their  nearest  and  dearest  relatives,  or 
be  sent  to  hell !  He  taught  the  idea  of  a  personal 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE. 


91 


Devil.  He  showed  his  ignorance  of  psychology  in 
assuming  the  power  was  in  his  “will”  by  which  he 
cured  disease,  and  he  contradicted  that  idea  when  he 
declared  “according  to  your  faith  be  it  unto  you.”  He 
also  shows  how  ignorant  he  was  of  Ideology  and  the 
human  mind,  when  he  told  Peter  that  an  idea  he  had 
expressed  was  not  evolved  by  his  own  brains.  No  idea 
was  ever  produced  by  human  lips  that  was  not  evolved 
by  the  brains  that  controlled  those  lips  in  uttering  it  — 
a  fact,  this,  which  will  never  be  ignored  by  progressive 
thought,  or  the  scientific  world.  Therefore  the  Chris¬ 
tianity  of  the  New  Testament  is  founded  upon  a  fraud. 

Jesus  was  not  begotten  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  nor  did 
he  actually  expire  upon  the  cross.  Admitting  the 
general  truthfulness  of  the  New  Testament  account, 
it  is  manifest  that  he  sivooned  upon  the  cross,  —  or,  if 
you  say  he  died  on  the  cross,  then  he  died  in  titter  de¬ 
spair,  believing  himself  forsaken  of  God,  as  indeed  he 
was  forsaken.  Hence  Christianity  was  strangled  in  its 
birth,  and  the  hope  is  vain  that  the  time  will  come 
when  progressive  thought  and  science  will  join  hands 
with  any  form  of  mysticism,  ancient  or  modern. 

In  this  field  of  labor  for  the  relief  of  human  suffering 
I  have  been  engaged  now  for  more  than  sixty  years ! 
I  began  before  I  had  ever  heard  of  Christianity,  and 
much  less  of  “  Christian  Science,”  as  the  Christians 
with  whom  I  got  up  religious  revivals  ignored  science 
and  human  reason.  But  during  my  preaching  for 
twenty  years  I  found  among  my  “converts  ”  numerous 
cases  of  sickness,  and  almost  all  who  had  “faith” 
enough  to  believe  they  were  “  born  again  ”  had  faith 
enough  to  believe  in  me  to  be  healed,  whenever  I  told 
them  what  to  do,  and  they  did  it  to  be  cured. 


92 


IDEOLOGY. 


A  class  in  Boston  (Mass.)  calling  themselves  “  Chris¬ 
tian  Scientists  ”  have  adapted  the  mesmeric  method  of 
operating!  They  have  a  college  where  they  send  out 
annually  a  number  of  mesmerizers,  and  whenever  a  cure 
occurs  they  attribute  it  to  the  Holy  Ghost  !  Hence  to 
a  person  of  a  given  temperament  (of  the  “few  duped”), 
if  you  sit  in  one  corner  of  a  large  room  and  the 
invalid  in  the  farther  corner,  and  you  gaze  at  him 
intently,  telling  him  that  will  cure  his  complaint,  he 
may  be  cured,  as  Sir  Humphrey  Davy’s  patient  was 
electrified  and  cured  when  he  put  a  thermometer  under 
his  tongue  ! 

It  was  during  my  twenty  years  in  Methodist  revivals 
that  I  became  convinced  of  what  all  will  find  true  by  and 
by,  and  it  was  this,  viz.,  that  no  God,  no  Jesus,  no  Holy 
Ghost,  no  miracle-worker,  ancient  or  modern,  has  or 
can  have  any  power  over  the  sick,  save  and  excepting 
that  power  by  which  the .  miracle-worker  is  invested  by 
the  faith  and  confidence  of  the  patient  (Matt.  ix.  21,  22). 

Jesus,  like  Mesmer,  claimed  this  power  was  in  his 
will,  and  yet  he  unwittingly  confessed  that  he  and  God 
could  do  nothing  without  faith  !  But  Christians  of  the 
present  day,  not  even  those  who  call  themselves  “  scien¬ 
tists,”  have  yet  found  out  what  I  discovered  fifty  years 
ago,  when  in  the  Christian  pulpit,  that  faith  in  a  myth 
is  of  equal  power  in  the  cure  of  disease  with  a  certain 
class  of  minds.  Thus  it  is  with  a  certain  class  that 
revival  epidemics  are  got  up. 

When  I  was  a  Christian  I  had  no  knowledge  of  those 
psychological  laws  and  forces  by  which  converts  were 
multiplied  to  hundreds  and  their  diseases  often  cured. 
The  theory  taught  to  the  students  in  this  college  is 
mesmeric,  and  false  I  know,  and  the  methods  of  treat- 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE. 


93 


ing  disease  are  mesmeric.  As,  no  matter  what  the 
method  or  the  theory  may  be,  when  an  idea  of  the  cure 
and  faith  are  wanting,  in  any  case  cures  may  occur,  as 
they  do  in  despite  of  quack  medicines. 

Both  Jesus  and  Mesmer  an  error  taught 
In  regard  to  the  human  will, 

As  to  the  subjection  of  human  thought, 

And  so  it  is  taught  by  many  still. 

In  their  paper  I  notice  some  thirty  cards  of  those 
new  mesmeric  doctors,  who  dub  themselves  C.  S. 
(Christian  Scientist),  instead  of  an  M.  D.,  or  Mesmeric 
Doctor.  One  of  the  patients  treated  by  them,  without 
benefit,  and  long  enough  to  get  $ 200  out  of  her,  called 
on  me  not  long  ago,  and  she  told  me  their  method  was 
mesmeric.  The  editor  of  this  paper  has  also  published 
an  octavd  volume  on  “  Science  and  Health.”  Its  motto  is  : 
“For  the  weapons  of  our  warfare  are  not  carnal,  but 
mighty  through  God  to  the  pulling  down  of  strong¬ 
holds.” 

“  Mighty  through  a  myth  in  the  sky!”  This  mes¬ 
meric  book  is  endorsed  by  M.  L.  Holbrook,  editor  of 
the  “Herald  of  Health;”  by  A.  B.  Alcott,  Concord, 
Massachusetts  ;  and  by  a  number  of  Christian  M.  D.’s. 

They  sent  me  a  copy  of  their  monthly  paper  called 
the  “Christian  Scientist;”  and,  to  reciprocate  the 
compliment,  I  sent  the  editor  a  respectful  letter,  which 
she  had  not  the  courage  to  publish  !  In  this  letter  I 
told  her  how  numerous  cures  of  disease  occurred  when 
I  was  a  revival  minister,  and  without  any  of  her  mes¬ 
meric  methods,  and  when  also  Christianity  ignored 
both  science  and  human  reason, — as  indeed  it  has  done 
to  this  day,  and  it  always  will  do  ! 


94 


IDEOLOGY. 


Certainly  the  New  Testament  tells  us  what  this 
“saving  faith”  is,  when  it  declares,  “Faith  is  the  evi¬ 
dence  of  things  not  seen.”  Now,  the  evidence  here 
referred  to  is  fabricated  in  each  mind  by  that  same 
supreme  law  of  selfhood  that  heals  the  wound  and 
cures  the  disease  whenever  any  cure  is  made. 

The  forces  and  the  laws  of  involution  and  evolution 
are  in  each  mind  the  same  ;  and,  moreover,  we  should 
bear  in  mind  that  the  Christian’s  “saving  faith  ”  never 
heals  a  wound  that  “saving  faith”  had  not  previously 
made  !  In  the  temperament  and  education  we  may 
differ,  but  not  in  the  vital  or  elementary  forces  that 
excite  faith,  hope,  love,  or  fear  ;  and  these  forces  are 
controlled  by  involution  and  evolution,  and  the  results 
may  be  attributed  to  any  one  of  a  dozen  imaginary 
causes.  Yet  when  they  are  fanciful  it  need  not  make 
much  difference  whether  it  be  a  myth  in  the  sky,  or  a 
man  that  died  two  thousand  years  ago. 

But  probably  many  generations  of  Christians  will  yet 
be  born  and  die,  and  spell-bound  by  this  supreme  law 
of  self-induction  they  will  never  know  of  the  position 
now  everywhere  outside  of  the  church  maintained  by 
the  scientific  world,  that  all  the  problems  of  humanity 
are  not  to  be  solved  by  mere  thought  alone ;  and  that 
these  laws,  demonstrated  by  actual  experiment,  must 
and  will  be  admitted  in  the  sum  total  of  valid  knowledge. 

I  am  aware  it  is  a  characteristic  of  Christian  people 
that  whenever  one  of  their  number  happens  to  be 
detected  in  crime,  they  are  apt  to  exclaim  :  “  Oh !  he 
was  not  a  Christian  !  ”  Or,  “  If  he  ever  had  been  con¬ 
verted,  he  backslid.”  But  this  excuse  does  not  cover 
all  the  facts  in  such  cases  as  are  constantly  occurring 
in  all  parts  of  Christendom,  —  cases  where  priests. 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE. 


95 


bishops,  and  other  officials  of  the  churches  are  impli¬ 
cated,  with  infamous  crimes,  precisely  like  other  bad 
men !  The  inference  to  be  drawn  from  this  fact  is, 
that  Christianity  has  done  nothing  for  its  victims  but 
deception !  But  surely  we  can  have  enough  of  that 
without  the  Bible  or  the  Holy  Ghost. 

The  whole  Christian  world  prayers  made, 

And  failed,  for  Garfield  when  he  died  ; 

Thus  in  “saving  faith  ”  all  the  churches  prayed, 

And  now  they  knozu  some  one  has  lied. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


THE  BIBLE  IDEA  OF  “INSPIRATION.” 

Christianity  teaches  that  the  trance  is  a  state  of 
“the  highest  inspiration”  and  produced  by  the  “Holy 
Ghost.”  Hence  Dr.  Adam  Clarke  affirms,  in  his  “Com¬ 
mentary,”  on  St.  Paul’s  enhancement,  that  it  “evinces 
the  highest  degree  of  inspiration,”  and  that  what  Paul 
learned  in  that  trance  “  formed  the  basis  of  all  his 
doctrines.”  In  that  state  Christianity  teaches  that 
Peter  and  Paul  had  “the  nearest  intimacy  with  God, 
and  the  highest  revelation  of  his  will,”  as  Dr.  Adam 
Clarke  affirms.  The  Bible  assures  us  that  the  very  first 
human  being  that  its  God  had  “created  ”  he  entranced 
in  order  to  create  him  a  wife,  else  there  could  have 
been  no  humanity,  nor  any  serpent  with  a  human 
tongue  and  speech.  From  that  same  state  of  trance 
Christianity  has  come,  with  its  “visions  and  revelations 
from  the  Lord.”  The  Bible  was  written  by  barbarians, 
who  thought  a  state  of  enhancement  the  best  for  hear¬ 
ing  God’s  voice  and  for  being  “caught  up  to  paradise.” 
Similarly,  the  modern  form  of  mysticism  is  founded 
upon  this  state  of  trance,  from  which  messages  are 
made  from  the  dead. 

The  printers  have  a  good  maxim,  to  “  follow  copy  if 
it  leads  out  of  the  window,”  and  shall  not  science  fol¬ 
low  “  plenary  inspiration  ”  in  defining  The  trance,  “that 

96 


THE  BIBLE  IDEA  OF  INSPIRATION. 


9  7 


state  of  the  human  mind  whence  Christianity  has 
come”  ?  Is  not  the  Bible  an  “ inspired,”  infallible  wit- 

y 

ness  as  to  those  states  of  the  human  mind  whence 
its  “visions  and  revelations  ”  were  derived  ?  Moreover, 
what  if  we  find  that  both  the  Bible  and  classic  lore  are 
perfectly  agreed  in  their  definitions  of  the  “  trance  ”  or 
ecstasy  ? 

In  the  Hebrew  it  is  thus  defined  :  — 

Tar-dai-mah.  — Sleep,  heaviness,  sluggishness,  from  the 
root  Ra-dam  —  He  sank  down ;  was  overwhelmed,  as  in 
water  ;  was  asleep  ;  overcome  with  sleep. 

It  is  found  in  Gen.  ii.  21  ;  xv.  12;  Num.  xx;iv.  4-6; 
and  Dan.  x.  9. 

In  the  Greek  it  is  : 

Existemi  or  Existao.  —  I  remove  out  of  my  place  or  state  ; 
am  out  of  my  wits  ;  am  beside  myself ;  am  transported  be¬ 
yond  myself  ;  am  astonished  ;  amazed  ;  astounded. 

And  this  terms  occurs  in  Acts  x.  10;  xi.  15  ;  xxii. 
17  ;  2  Cor.  xii.  1-4. 

I  need  not  quote  the  passages  here  referred  to,  where 
both  these  terms  occur ;  but  will  notice  two  cases  — 
one  of  Abraham  and  the  other  of  St.  Paul  —  as  an  illus¬ 
tration  of  the  Bible  idea  of  “plenary  inspiration.” 

Abraham  is  considered  “  the  father  of  the  faithful,” 
and  the  “faith  of  Abraham”  is  considered  a  “mirac¬ 
ulous  ”  acquisition.  Charles  F.  Freeman  had  the 
“  Abrahamic  faith  ”  when  he  and  his  wife  killed  their 
infant  child ;  and  the  assassin  Guiteau  had  this  faith 
when  he  fired  those  fatal  shots  into  the  body  of  Presi¬ 
dent  Garfield.  Evidently,  Abraham  had  no  idea  of 
monotheism  until  he  got  it  in  his  dreamy  trance. 


98 


IDEOLOGY. 


“  And  when  the  sun  was  gone  down  [tar-dai-mah],  deep 
sleep  fell  upon  Abraham  ;  and  lo,  a  horror  of  great  darkness 
fell  upon  him  ”  (Gen.  xv.  12). 

What  a  state  is  this  for  ‘‘inspiration  ”  !  Yet  such  is 
that  state  of  the  human  mind  believed  to  be  in  a 
“superior  condition”  for  “messages  from  the  dead” 
and  “revelations  from  the  sky.”  And  does  the  reader 
marvel  that  for  more  than  half  a  century  the  writer  has 
persisted  in  his  charge  of  a  gigantic  fraud  against 
Christianity  ?  But  some  have  doubtless  thought  this 
was  too  severe,  admitting,  as  he  does,  that  Christians 
are  good  people,  as  I  did  not  give  the  scientific  grounds 
upon  which  my  indictment  was  predicted. 

Theodore  Parker  once  said  to  me  that  he  himself 
would  have  considered  it  a  great  advantage,  in  this 
regard,  if  he  could  have  had  similar  opportunities  to 
mine  for  witnessing  the  progress  of  revival  phenomena. 
My  experience  in  the  M.  E.  Church  for  many  years,  in 
witnessing  the  trances  that  always  occurred  in  all  the 
revivals  I  got  up,  gave  me  ample  opportunities  for  es¬ 
timating  this  state  correctly  and  for  acquainting  myself 
with  a  class  of  nervous  and  mental  phenomena  that  I 
never  could  have  witnessed  anywhere  else,  and  they 
prepared  me  for  the  discovery  of  the  psychological 
laws  by  which  I  can  now  prove,  beyond  all  successful 
contradiction,  how  all  those  phenomena,  and  all  that  is 
induced  in  “Christian  experience,”  are  brought  about. 
It  was  certainly  a  vast  advantage  to  me  to  have,  in  the 
beginning  of  my  psychological  investigations,  so  large 
a  number  of  Christian  people  who  had  been  “con¬ 
verted”  and  “sanctified”  under  my  preaching.  These 
“converts”  I  always  found  in  all  the  cities  where  I 
afterward  gave  scientific  lectures.  They  were  always 


THE  BIBLE  IDEA  OF  INSPIRATION. 


99 


friendly,  and  I  was  greatly  assisted  by  them,  and  I  may 
as  well  state  the  reason  here.  As  a  general  rule,  all 
persons  who  are  the  first  to  be  “converted”  are  the 
most  easily  entranced.  It  is  only  the  few  that  are 
saved,  — only  the  few  that  are  miraculously  cured.  In 
comparison  with  the  mass,  only  a  few  are  insane.  Only 
a  few  have  the  right  temperament  for  catalepsy  and 
somnambulism,  so  as  to  become  entranced  in  that 
sensational  movement  known  as  modern  mediumship. 
As  a  general  rule,  I  believe  it  will  be  found  that  each 
of  these  states,  called  by  various  terms,  such  as  “  born 
again,”  “sanctified,”  “entranced,”  “inspired,”  “be¬ 
witched,”  and  “mediumized,”  are  synonymous ,  and  they 
are  characteristic  of  one  class  of  temperaments.  After 
I  had  lectured  in  Boston,  for  twelve  years,  on  Ideology, 
the  mass  had  become  so  familiarized  with  these  physio¬ 
logical  conditions  and  laws  by  which  all  revival  and 
mental  epidemics  are  got  up  that  for  thirty  years  after 
no  “revivals”  occurred  in  that  city.  So  when  it  was 
assaulted  by  Moody  and  Sankey,  recently,  they  only 
victimized  a  few  young  people  that  had  been  born  one 
age  since  my  lectures  were  concluded. 

My  theory  of  selfhood  covers  all  the  facts  in  the 
“miraculous  cures”  in  “revival  scares,”  and  all  the 
nervous  phenomena  attributed  to  supernatural  causes, 
and  the  sudden  deaths  that  have  occurred  from  the 
sensational  excitement  of  faith,  fear,  hope,  and  joy. 
Moreover,  it  accounts  for  mental  contagion,  mental 
epidemics,  “  mothers’  marks,”  and  other  correlative 
phenomena  that  have  never  been  explained,  either  by 
medicine  or  theology. 

Observe,  it  was  not  till  Abraham  was  entranced  that 
he  could  hear  what  his  idea  of  God  said  unto  him  ;  and, 


100 


IDEOLOGY. 


but  for  this  insane  state  of  trance,  there  never  could 
have  been  any  humanity  but  Adam.  Therefore,  since 
he  got  his  wife  from  his  entrancement,  and  the  race  has 
increased,  we  are  indebted  to  this  same  state  of  trance 
for  all  “  inspired  ”  writings  and  our  ideas  of  personality 
in  gods.  Hence  this  trance  is  pronounced  by  Dr. 
Adam  Clarke  the  “ highest  degree  of  inspiration,”  and  it 
is  the  Christian’s  “  royal  road  ”  to  heaven  ! 

St.  Paul  was  the  chief  apostle,  and  he  had  two  spells 
of  entrancement.  Rev.  Ed.  Robinson,  in  his  edition 
of  Calmet’s  Dictionary,  says  of  Paul’s  entrancement, 
that  “  in  the  year  a.  d.  44  Paul  was  enraptured  into 
the  third  heavens,  where  he  saw  ineffable  things.” 
Thus  he  contradicts  Paul’s  account  of  himself,  as  he 
does  not  tell  us  of  what  he  saw  in  the  third  heaven,  but 
of  what  he  heard  there  !  Now,  here  is  Paul’s  account 
of  his  own  obfuscation  :  — 

“  I  will  come  to  visions  and  revelations  of  the  Lord.  I 
knew  a  man  in  Christ  above  fourteen  years  ago  (whether  in 
the  body,  I  cannot  tell ;  or  whether  out  of  the  body,  God 
knoweth)  ;  such  an  one  caught  up  to  the  third  heaven.  And 
I  knew  such  a  man,  (whether  in  the  body  or  out  of  the  body, 
I  cannot  tell :  God  knoweth  ;)  How  that  he  was  caught 
up  into  paradise  and  heard  unspeakable  words,  which  it  is 
not  lawful  for  a  man  to  utter.”  (2  Cor.  xii.  1-4.) 

Any  full-grown  man  or  woman,  not  a  Christian,  to 
hear  such  a  statement  as  this,  would  instantly  pronounce 
it  a  case  of  insanity.  Nor  could  a  better  illustration  be 
given  of  the  definition  of  the  trance  than  I  have  quoted. 
A  man  whose  mind  is  in  a  state  that  does  not  allow 
him  to  be  conscious  of  his  own  selfhood  and  self- 
control,  or  to  know  whether  he  is  dead  or  alive,  is 
insane.  He  may  tell  us  what  “God  knoweth,”  and  of 
words  that  he  never  heard  spoken,  and  also  of  “  visions 


THE  BIBLE  IDEA  OF  INSPIRATION. 


IOI 


and  revelations  from  the  Lord  ;  ”  but  “such  a  man  ”  is 
“beside  himself  and  out  of  his  wits.”  He,  himself, 
cannot  know.  That  persons  entranced  are  sometimes 
“enraptured,”  I  very  well  know.  And  among  the 
Christians  and  the  ministers  I  have  seen  entranced  in 
my  lectures,  I  have  had  numerous  cases  where  they 
were  so  “filled  with  joy”  and  enraptured  with  delight 
that  they  have  declared  it  was  “  far  above  any  prayer¬ 
meeting  or  camp-meeting,”  which  they  never  would 
have  said  in  their  normal  state. 

But  this  chapter  would  hardly  answer  my  purpose,  if 
I  did  not  also  give  some  account  of  the  trance  idea  that 
prevails  in  the  Popish  church.  In  this  church  it  occurs 
among  the  nuns,  and  where  everything  is  made  of  it  by 
the  priests  as  “a  miracle,  produced  by  the  power  of 
Almighty  God.” 

I  have  now  before  me  a  Popish  pamphlet  by  “  the 
Earl  oHShrewsbury,”  entitled  “  The  Virgins  of  the 
Tyrol,”  —  two  Austrian  girls,  who,  for  eight  years,  had 
been  in  the  habit  (when  receiving  the  sensational  corn- 
communion)  of  falling  into  this  state.  This  tract  I 
have  reviewed  at  length  in  my  work  on  “  The  Trance  ” 
(now  out  of  print).  It  contains  pictures  of  each  of 
these  nuns,  showing  the  bleeding  scratches  they  had 
made  on  their  faces ,  feet,  and  hands,  as  similar  to  what 
was  believed  to  have  been  done  to  Jesus  when  he  was 
crucified  and  swooned  on  the  cross.  Two  facts  in 
regard  to  these  Popish  cases  may  be  mentioned  here  :  — 

That  females  only  fall  into  the  trance  in  the  Popish 
church,  and  it  so  happens  that  it  is  only  the  nuns  who 
have  ever  had  these  scratches  which  they  call  “  the  real 
stigmata,”  by  which  they  signify  their  faith  that  those 
marks  on  their  feet,  hands,  and  temples  are  made  “  by 


102 


IDEOLOGY. 


the  miraculous  power  of  God;  ”  whereas,  these  stigmata 
are  made  by  each  nun  when  entranced  (and  it  may,  in 
some  cases,  be  that  they  do  not  remember  it),  each  one 
for  herself.  Entranced  persons  often  act  from  strange 
or  insane  motives,  and  the  nuns,  controlled  by  the 
Popish  ideas  of  Jesus,  produce  these  scratches  to  gratify 
their  “confessors.” 

This  I  prove  both  by  the  history  of  these  Popish 
cases  and  by  similar  cases  that  have  occurred,  among 
Papists  and  Protestant  Christians,  entranced  under  my 
own  personal  observation. 

A  nun,  entranced  in  San  Francisco  in  1872,  was  de¬ 
tected  in  scratching  her  own  hands  and  feet  for  the 
stigmata.  F.  Giard,  a  Popish  priest,  was  tried  in 
France  in  1733  for  the  liberties  he  had  taken  in  kissing 
the  “stigmata”  which  a  nun  had  shown  upon  her 
person.  The  account  of  this  case  represents  that  this 
nun  charged  the  priest  with  having  bewitched  her,  as 
(from  the  laws  of  association)  she  invariably  fell  into 
the  trance  whenever  he  visited  her,  as  he  often  did. 
No  doubt  the  bewitchment  was  reciprocal. 

I  utter  what  I  know  when  I  affirm  that*  the  best 
Christians  that  can  be  found  in  the  Popish  church,  or 
in  Christendom,  when  entranced,  will  deceive  and 
falsify  for  the  purpose  of  gratifying  their  priests  or 
those  they  think  the  most  of  in  their  normal  state. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


THE  BIBLE  IDEA  OF  ITS  GOD. 

Max  Muller  says,  Abraham’s  idea  of  the  Bible 
God  was  not  originated  in  his  own  brain  ;  whereas 
there  are  no  other  ideas.  There  are  two  instincts  all- 
pervading  and  supreme  in  humanity  ;  they  have  only 
to  be  referred  to,  to  be  recognized  by  every  thoughtful 
mind.  Instincts  may  be  perverted,  but  when  under¬ 
stood  and  co-operated  with  by  our  intelligence  they 
become  the  source  of  our  highest  joy.  They  are  mani¬ 
fested  in  the  supreme  selfhood,  self-control,  self-growth, 
self-healing  of  wounds,  and  the  self-cure  of  disease. 

1.  In  the  self-care  for  selfhood,  in  eating,  sleeping, 
working,  and  in  all  that  is  done  for  one’s  own  comfort 
and  happiness. 

2.  In  those  harmonies  that  perpetuate  the  race. 
Thus  human  selfhood  is  repeated  and  increased  from 
age  to  age  by  its  own  ideas.  Man  is  infinitely  above 
any  infallible  faith,  infallible  priest,  or  infallible  church ; 
and  he  is  made  a  man  by  his  ideas. 

Here  is  what  Max  Muller  says  :  — 

“It  was  through  Abraham’s  special  faith  that  God  made  a 
special  revelation  of  his  individuality ;  and  this  revelation 
was  not  made  through  Abraham’s  instincts,  nor  through  his 
abstract  meditation,  nor  through  his  ecstatic  vision.” — Semitic 
Monotheism :  Chips  from  a  Germa?i  Workshop ,  p.  367,  by 
Max  Muller.” 

103 


104 


IDEOLOGY. 


Such  is  the  tribute  paid  by  one  scholar  to  the  bar¬ 
barian  idea  of  a  personal  myth  in  the  sky.  Nor  is  this 
the  first  of  the  kind,  nor  will  it  be  last,  which  scholarly 
men  will,  perhaps,  yield  to  ancient  mediumistic  ideas. 
When  science  and  Nature’s  order  are  ignored,  forms  of 
“special  faith  ”  are  relied  upon  for  a  knowledge  of  what 
the  human  mind  has  no  capacity  for  knowing.  And 
here  is  another  chip  from  the  same  “  Workshop :  ”  — 

“There  is  no  subject  more  absorbing  than  to  trace  the 
origin  and  the  first  growth  of  human  thought.  The  growth 
of  language  is  continuous,  and  by  continuing  our  researches 
backward  from  the  most  modern  to  the  most  ancient  strata, 
the  very  elements  and  roots  of  human  speech  have  been 
reached,  and  with  them  the  elements  and  roots  of  human 
thought.” 

THE  FIRST  HUMAN  SPEECH. 

i.  The  first  verse  in  the  Bible  affirms  a  plurality  of 
Gods:  Gen.  i.  i.  Hence  the  first  special  revelation 
is  not  monotheistic.  It  is  E-lo-him  Gods,  two  or  two 
thousand  as  to  the  number,  and  as  to  this  number 
Muller’s  special  faith  must  determine.  But  admitting 
this  question  to  be  determined  by  the  Christian  idea 
of  saving  faith,  there  may  be  a  million,  more  or  less. 
“According  to  your  faith,”  said  Jesus,  “  it  shall  be  unto 
you.”  And  Dr.  Adam  Clarke  pleads  for  Muller’s 
special  faith,  in  his  comment  on  this  term  E-lo-him  in 
the  first  of  Genesis.  He  says  :  — 

“  It  is  certainly  plural,  and  has  long  been  believed  by  the 
most  learned  and  eminently  pious  men  to  imply  a  plurality 
of  persons  in  the  divine  nature.” 

Observe  how  very  convenient  this  special  faith  is, 
for  both  the  ignorant  and  the  learned  and  eminently 


THE  BIBLE  IDEA  OF  ITS  GOD. 


105 


pious  men.  Their  eye  of  saving  faith  is  so  big  they 
can  see  the  unseen  and  Enow  the  unknown  ;  and  thus, 
if  you  begin  to  multiply  Gods  by  faith,  where  will  you 
'stop  ? 

2.  Again  :  This  special  revelation  of  the  God  idea 
affirms  before  Eve  had  uttered  a  word,  and  even 
Adam  had  only  a  few  words  to  say,  hence  the  human 
speech  among  the  very  first  was  uttered  by  a  inedi- 
umized  snake  :  Gen.  iii.  3.  It  is  the  Bible  idea  that 
man  and  all  the  prophets,  Jesus  and  his  apostles, 
were  all  mediums  between  this  God  idea  and  the  race 
of  mankind, — as  indeed  all  popes,  bishops,  priests,  and 
theologians  are  of  the  present  day.  But  in  the  function 
of  mediumship  between  the  invisibles  and  mankind  the 
serpent  was  the  first.  The  snake  was  nearly  the  first 
in  the  use  of  human  speech  ;  and  so  according  to  the 
“Chip  from  a  German  Workshop,”  if  we  trace  human 
speech  up  to  that  most  ancient  strata,  we  find  the  root 
of  the  God  and  the  Devil  idea. 

3.  The  progress  of  language  follows  the  evolution  of 
ideas.  Why,  then,  does  this  philologist  leave  the 
science  of  this  day  and  go  backward  to  the  infancy  of 
the  race  for  an  idea  of  God,  which  no  human  mind  can 
know  ? 

4.  Had  Max  Muller  been  as  well  posted  in  psychol¬ 
ogy  as  he  is  in  philology,  he  never  could  have  made  so 
flat  a  contradiction,  either  of  himself  or  the  Bible.  We 
shall  see  that  barbarian  book  expressly  affirms  that 
Abraham  did  obtain  his  idea  of  monotheism  in  a  state 
of  (Hebrew,  tar-dai-mali)  ecstatic  vision  or  trance. 

But  Max  Muller  is  not  the  only  scholar  that  has 
been  in  ages  past  obfuscated  by  mysticism.  All  the 
priests,  especially  of  the  Roman  church,  are  far  more 


io6 


IDEOLOGY. 


ignorant  still,  not  only  of  psychology,  but  as  to  the  usns 
loquendi  of  their  Bible,  in  respect  to  the  trance  as  a 
state  of  inspiration.  Connecting  theology  with  the 
ages  past,  it  is  easily  shown  that  these  terms  are  syn¬ 
onymous  ;  namely,  Christianity ,  witchcraft ,  inspired , 
entranced ,  mediumized ,  converted ,  or  born  again. 

A  Popish  priest,  Mgr.  Capel,  is  now  lecturing  about 
this  country,  and  attempting  to  drill  Americans  into 
the  belief  of  his  infallible  church,  in  which  nuns  are 
entranced  and  mediumized  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  Mary 
was  of  old.  Witchcraft  is  commerce  with  God  and  the 
invisible  world.  Christians  are  converted,  and  all 
mediums  have  commerce  with  the  invisible  world. 
The  apostles  when  entranced  were  inspired  :  2d  Cor. 
xii.  1-4. 

The  first  idea  of  the  Bible  God  is  plural,  also  in  other 
passages  it  is  in  the  plural ;  and  now  to  prove  that 
Abraham  got  his  idea  from  what  Muller  calls  ecstatic 
vision,  I  quote  from  the  inspired  word,  from  the  Chris¬ 
tian  God’s  special  revelation,  which  no  Christian  can 
deny.  It  is  indeed  infallible  proof  against  Popery  and 
the  theory  of  Christendom  in  regard  to  inspiration. 

“  And  when  the  sun  was  gone  done,  a  (tar-dai-mah)  deep 
sleep  fell  upon  Abraham.  And  lo  !  an  horror  of  great  dark¬ 
ness  fell  upon  him !  And  the  Lord  said  unto  him,  ‘  Know 
of  a  surety  that  thy  seed  shall  be  a  stranger  in  a  strange  land.’  ” 
—  Genesis  xv.  12. 

How  many  centuries  after  this  account  was  written 
is  unknown.  But  it  settles  the  question  as  to  the  Bible 
account  of  the  state  of  trance  in  which  Abraham  got 
his  idea  of  God.  The  horrible  darkness  that  fell  upon 
Abraham  overshadows  the  priesthood  that  have  in¬ 
herited  his  faith,  and  who  now  undertake  to  tell  us 


THE  BII2LE  IDEA  OF  ITS  GOD. 


107 


what  God’s  design  must  have  been  in  causing  an  horror 
of  great  darkness  to  fall  upon  Abraham.  Abraham 
knew  nothing  of  what  God  said  to  him  until  he  was 
obfuscated  in  a  state  of  trance  ;  and  so  of  other  inspired 
writers  of  the  Bible,  like  Balaam,  Daniel,  Peter,  Paul, 
and  John  the  revelator.  But  for  the  entrancement  of 
Adam  he  never  could  have  had  any  wife  or  any  child ; 
and  in  that  case  there  would  have  been  no  serpent 
with  a  human  tongue,  and  by  which  a  snake  was  the 
first  of  all  mediums,  ancient  and  modern.  Nay,  there 
would  have  been  no  cajoling  and  overshadowing  of 
Mary  ;  no  Jesus  born  of  her  ;  nor,  indeed,  any  humanity 
to  be  saved  or  damned ;  no  Gods  nor  ghosts,  no  inspi¬ 
ration,  and  no  infallible  church  ;  no  witchcraft,  and  for 
which  Christians  have  put  millions  of  their  number  to 
death  upon  the  gallows  and  at  the  stake.  And  that 
would  have  been  an  horror  of  great  darkness  upon  this 
planet,  when  no  one  who  was  entranced  enough  to  see  it. 

Who  but  the  Devil  entranced  Jesus  the  Christ,  and 
hauled  the  second  person  of  the  Christian  Godhead  up 
through  the  air  from  the  Temple  to  the  mountain  ?  For 
you  know  that  all,  when  entranced,  travel  through  the 
heavens  ;  and  I  call  on  some  priest  to  tell  us  by  what 
power  Jesus  was  hoisted  up  to  that  giddy  height? 
Which  person  in  the  Christian  Godhead  was  it  that 
mecLiumized  and  inspired  both  Balaam  and  the  beast  on 
which  he  rode,  when  by  a  special  revelation  this  God 
announced  himself  an  ass  ?  —  Num.  xxii. 

Who  was  it  that  mediumized  and  inspired  two  thou¬ 
sand  hogs,  all  at  once,  and,  thus  converted,  they  were 
made  Baptists  by  immersion  in  the  sea  ?  And  what 
was  the  size  of  that  man  out  of  whose  carcase  a  legion 
of  devils  were  cast  ?  And  was  not  each  of  those  devils 


ioS 


IDEOLOGY. 


inspired ?  Which  person  in  the  Christian  Godhead 
actually  created  four  monsters  in  heaven,  near  his 
throne  ;  and  with  eyes  where  their  tails  should  be,  and 
then  inspired  them  to  shout  his  glory  both  day  and 
night,  forever  ? 

The  Bible  revelations,  from  a  state  of  trance,  narrate 
numerous  disappointments ,  failures ,  and  catastrophes , 
that  befell  its  God  in  the  beginning  of  the  race  when 
humanity  was  young.  But  had  there  been  no  Trinity, 
no  destruction  by  a  flood,  and  no  Christianity  or  witch¬ 
craft,  the  millions  of  Christians  falsely  charged  with 
witchcraft  never  could  have  been  hanged  upon  a 
Christian  gallows,  or  burned  at  a  stake  by  fires  set  by 
Christian  hands.  All  this  would  have  been  prevented  ; 
nor  would  hell  have  been  lit  up  with  fire  and  brimstone 
for  the  eternal  torment  of  the  majority  of  the  race  who 
enter  there  through  the  broad  way,  while  only  a  few 
are  saved. 

But  for  such  a  trance  we  should  never  have  had  any 
idea  of  such  a  Bible,  or  any  such  special  revelations 
from  such  a  horrible  God.  And  now  for  the  proof  of 
what  I  tell  you:  Just  turn  to  that  old  barbarian  book 
and  read  the  special  revelation  as  to  the  trance  and  you 
cannot  fail  to  see  whence  this  idea  of  the  Jewish  or 
Christian  God  came:  Gen.  ii.  21  ;  xv.  12;  Num.  xxii. 
30;  xxiv.  46;  Dan.  x.  9;  Acts  x.  10,  11,  15;  xxii.  17; 
2d  Cor.  xii.  1-6;  Rev.  iv.  1-11.  The  entire  books  of 
Daniel  and  Revelations  are  written  from  a  state  of 
trance,  and  so  we  might  say  of  the  entire  Bible.  It 
is  the  work  of  special  faith,  without  which  there  are 
for  humanity  no  special  revelations,  nor  Gods,  nor 
ghosts. 

Ideals  are  of  the  future,  and  are  ideals  because  un- 


THE  BIBLE  IDEA  OF  ITS  GOD. 


109 


known,  while  ideas  are  known,  and  we  are  equally  held 
and  controlled  by  them,  whether  true  or  false.  There 
are  no  limits  (except  in  the  human  brain)  to  human 
thought  and  the  evolution  of  ideas.  Hence  we  have  as 
many  ideas  of  Gods  as  there  are  brains  to  think  them. 
Ideas  do  not  float  in  the  air,  as  one  medium  told  me 
that  he  supposed  they  did ;  nor  are  ideas  as  such 
transferred  out  of  one  brain  into  another,  as  Mesmer 
taught,  nor  was  any  human  brain  ever  controlled 
merely  by  the  volition  of  any  other  brain.  The  human 
will  or  choice  is  free  and  independent  of  every  other 
will,  as  the  person  and  individuality  is  free.  No  faith, 
no  God,  or  ghost.  Hence  that  special  revelation,  which 
says : — 

“Without  faith  it  is  impossible  to  please  God.  For  he  that 
cometh  to  God  must  believe  that  he  is,  and  that  he  is  a  re¬ 
warder  of  ttipm  that  diligently  seek  him.” — Heb.  xi.  6. 

It  was  by  Abraham’s  special  faith,  says  Muller.  Of 
course  it  was,  for  you  can  create  a  God  in  no  other  way, 
—  only  by  an  idea.  Devils  and  Gods  are  from  human 
ideas,  and  these  make  witchcraft,  and  then  the  victims 
of  these  false  ideas  hang  and  burn  one  another.  Now, 
notice  how  Muller  utterly  annihilates  his  own  idea  of 
monotheism  by  affirming  his  individuality  a  special 
revelation.  There  is  no  specialty  with  omniscience, 
omnipresence,  or  omnipotence.  How  can  an  individ¬ 
uality  fill  space  that  has  no  limit?  And  what  nonsense 
to  talk  of  an  infallible  church,  of  such  a  myth  ! 

And  it  will  be  noticed  where  the  Popish  idea  of 
infallibility  comes  from  by  the  faith  of  Abraham,  as 
when  the  horror  of  great  darkness  fell  upon  him  in  his 
trance  ;  then  his  idea  of  God  assured  him,  and  he  was 


1 10 


IDEOLOGY. 


infallible  as  Guiteau  declared  of  himself  when  he  fired 
that  fatal  shot. 


A  BLOOD-THIRSTY  GOD. 

I  should  have  to  quote  a  very  large  proportion  of  the 
Bible  to  show  fully  how  this  bloody  characteristic  in  its 
God’s  character  is  set  forth  and  insisted  upon.  Hence 
I  can  only  refer  to  a  few  passages  as  examples. 

THE  BIBLE  GOD. 

The  Bible  affirms  its  God  to  be  a  man  of  war  and 
bloodshed.  And  its  God  says  :  — 

“  Put  every  man  his  sword  by  his  side,  and  slay  every  man 
his  brother,  his  companion  and  neighbor.”  —  Ex.  xxii.  27. 

“  Spare  them  not,  but  slay  both  man  and  woman,  infant 
and  suckling.”  —  1  Sam.  xv.  3. 

“  Slay  utterly  old  and  young,  both  maids  and  little  chil¬ 
dren.” — Ezek.  ix.  6. 

“  Cursed  be  he  that  keepeth  back  his  sword  from  blood  !  ” 
— Jer.  xlviii.  10. 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  the  God  idea  in  the  Bible  came 
from  a  state  of  trance,  and  the  trance  is  not  only  a  state 
of  hallucination,  but  it  is  always  a  spontaneity,  similarly 
as  sleep,  fits,  and  dreaming  are  considered.  The  trance 
occurred  before  it  had  any  name,  and  as  it  occurred 
then,  so  it  occurs  now,  however  it  may  be  suggested  to 
the  mind  for  that  purpose ;  and  in  those  cases  where  it 
becomes  a  habit,  and  the  victim  is  under  the  control  of 
superstition,  it  is  considered  miraculous  ! 

My  principal  experiments  were  in  the  cases  of  per¬ 
sons  who  had  surgical  operations  performed  on  them 
without  pain)  in  a  state  of  self-induced  “trance.” 
Timid  women  held  lighted  candles  in  each  hand  while 


THE  BIBLE  IDEA  OF  ITS  GOD. 


I  I  I 


their  molars  were  drawn,  when  there  was  no  change  in 
their  pulse,  nor  any  movement  of  a  muscle ;  and  this 
was  done  when  the  surgeon  also  was  entranced,  and 
his  eyes  blindfolded,  while  surrounded  by  numerous 
other  surgeons,  editors,  clergymen,  and  men  of  science. 
Thus  of  persons  self-entranced  who  had  tumors  cut  out, 
and  one  had  his  thigh  amputated!  Not  one  of  these 
marvellous  states  were  superinduced  by  my  “will.” 
My  method  was  confined  wholly  to  ideas,  and  it  ignored 
mesmerism  and  theology. 

Webster,  in  the  quarto  edition  of  his  American 
dictionary,  in  defining  the  term  “Pathetism,”  has  ren¬ 
dered  me  liable  to  be  understood  as  indorsing  the 
notions  of  Mesmer ;  whereas  I  never  believed  in  that 
theory,  nor  did  I  ever  use  that  term  for  designating  the 
phenomena  by  which  I  demonstrated  its  falsehood.  The 
psychological  experiments  I  performed  throughout  the 
country  were  purely  scientific.  I  never  meddled  with 
the  nervous  system  of  a  human  mind  solely  for  the 
purpose  of  amusing  an  audience  ;  and  I  am  sure,  if 
psychology  were  sufficiently  understood,  no  one  would 
ever  consent  to  be  drilled  by  false  ideas  into  a  state  of 
mental  hallucination  merely  to  cause  a  laugh  by  the 
fantastic  capers  he  cut  up  in  that  state. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


THE  BIBLE  IDEA  OF  WITCHCRAFT. 

“  Thou  shalt  not  suffer  a  witch  to  live.” 

Witchcraft  is  practical  mysticism.  The  idea  is  a 
suspicion  as  to  an  imaginary  attempt  to  pick  the  lock 
for  which  Nature’s  order  and  laws  have  provided  no 
key.  In  the  Bible  it  is  “  commerce  with  God  or  the 
invisible  world.”  It  is  only  ideas  of  the  unknown  God, 
devils,  or  ghosts,  that  culminate  in  witchcraft.  The 
light  of  science  is  from  things  known,  and,  like  the 
central  sun,  it  shines  for  all ;  while  theories  built  upon 
phenomena  believed  to  be  mystical  cast  their  dark 
shadows  on  the  “  few  that  are  saved.”  All  are  fasci¬ 
nated  by  music,  oratory,  poetry,  art,  and  beauty ;  but 
under  the  control  of  false  ideas  in  Christianity  we  have 
witchcraft,  and  hundreds  of  thousands  have  been  put 
to  death  under  this  suspicion.  False  ideas,  crystallized 
into  an  ism,  culminate  in  bigotry,  cruelty,  proscription, 
persecution,  slavery,  witchcraft,  suicide,  and  murder. 

How  terrible  Christianity  has  been  in  this  regard 
will  be  apparent  when  we  consider  the  millions  it  has 
put  to  death  of  its  own  victims,  who  were  its  own  “kith 
and  kin.”  It  has  actually  slain  millions  of  those  whom 
Christianity  itself  had  made  witches  and  wizards. 
Well-informed  writers  have  estimated  the  number  of 


T  T  2 


THE  BIBLE  IDEA  OF  WITCHCRAFT. 


I  13 


men,  women,  and  children  at  nine  millions  who  have 
been  by  Christianity  put  to  death  on  the  gallows  and 
at  the  stake.  Yet  Christianity,  the  witchcraft  that 
perpetrated  these  bloody  deeds,  is  in  full  blast  among 
us  to  this  day  !  The  theory  of  two  hundred  or  three 
thousand  years  ago  is  preached  to-day,  in  spite  of 
science,  in  spite  of  the  ten  thousand  facilities  that  are 
everywhere  accessible  for  better  views  of  manhood  and 
humanity. 

None  but  a  mind  bewitched  with  mysticism  could 
read  any  Liberal  paper  for  a  month  without  being  con¬ 
vinced  that  Christianity  is  a  fraud.  Any  one  of  the 
Freethought  volumes  advertised  from  week  to  week 


contains  moral  dynamite  enough  to  blow  that  mystical 
balloon  to  atoms  in  the  sky.  No  one  not  bewitched  by 
some  phase  of  mysticism  could  ever  imagine  himself 
invested  “by  faith”  with  a  capacity  for  seeing  &  person¬ 
age  big  enough  to  fill  illimitable  space. 

It  was  in  full  view  of  this  condition  of  things  that 


our  humanity  stretched  forth  its  right  arm  of  justice 
and  wiped  out  chattel  slavery  from  all  the  churches 
and  this  nation,  only  a  few  years  ago.  This  is  what 
humanity  did,  at  an  immense  cost  of  its  treasure  and 
blood,  —  and,  moreover,  despite  of  Christianity  and  its 
God.  Had  this  God  and  his  own  chosen  people  been 
allowed  control  in  these  United  States,  this  nation 
would  have  to-day  been  engaged  in  slave-breeding  and 
slave-holding,  with  its  auction-blocks  for  the  sale  of 
human  flesh  ;  and  in  Washington  the  chains  of  the 
slave  would  now  be  heard,  with  the  orator’s  eloquence 
for  liberty  and  equal  rights  in  our  Christian  republic. 

Witchcraft  is  a  tremendous  lie,  —  a  lie  six  thousand 
years  long  ;  a  lie  repeated  in  so  many  pulpits,  and  for  so 


IDEOLOGY. 


1 14 

long  a  time,  that  no  rule  nor  scale  known  to  geometry 
01  the  scientific  world  can  measure  it.  But  thoughtful 
and  scientific  people  began  to  have  some  idea  of  a  huge 
lie  when  all  the  prayers  of  Christendom  failed  in  the 
death  of  Garfield.  That  hideous  lie  was  significant. 
That  was  an  experiment  that  the  praying  priests  and 
churches  had  never  anticipated.  They  scouted  the 
idea  of  such  an  experiment  when,  a  few  years  ago,  it 
was  proposed  by  Prof.  Tyndall.  But  it  is  the  scientific 
method,  and  it  has  proved  how  that  old  myth  in  the 
sky  has  always  lied  and  failed. 

The  Christian  Devil  is  the  father  of  lies.  Is  there 
among  all  the  nations  of  this  planet  any  idea  of  a  devil 
or  hell-fire  like  that  of  Christianity  ?  any  idea  like  the 
three  gods  in  one,  and  each  of  them  big  enough  to  fill 
unbounded  space  ?  Is  there  elsewhere  any  idea  of 
anger  and  wrath  like  that  of  the  Christian  God  ? 

“  Commerce  with  God." — As  we  shall  see,  this  is 
Christianity  and  witchcraft  ;  and  it  is  an  encouraging 
consideration  that  so  vast  a  majority  of  the  human 
race  have  always  and  forever  been  opposed  to  Chris¬ 
tianity.  Humanity  is  a  success.  It  is  no  failure,  and 
never  has  been  in  need  of  any  form  of  mysticism.  The 
number  victimized  by  theoretical  and  practical  witch¬ 
craft  may  be  said  to  be  few,  when  compared  with  the. 
entire  race,  and  still  they  are  becoming  less  and  less. 
Or,  if  you  say  that  the  “suspicion  ”  of  witchcraft  upon 
which  the  victims  were  put  to  death  was  well  founded, 
I  now  invite  you  to  the  proof  from  the  Bible  that  Chris¬ 
tianity  is  itself  witchcraft,  —  nothing  more  nor  less. 

Do  not  all  Christians  have  “  commerce  with  God  ”  ? 
Do  not  all  Mormons  and  modern  Spiritualists  “  have 
commerce  with  the  invisible  world  ”  ?  This  is  witch- 


THE  BIBLE  IDEA.  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  I  1 5 

craft,  and  so  determined  by  Christianity  itself.  It  has 
no  proof,  outside  of  its  own  self-created  faith  (Heb.  xi. 
1)  — no  proof  of  its  dogmas,  no  proof  of  its  creed,  and 
none  of  any  crime  in  those  hung  for  witchcraft.  Hence 
its  dogmatism  and  drilling  of  human  ignorance  and 
credulity. 

The  proof  I  now  present  against  Christianity  is 
stronger  and  more  conclusive  than  anything  in  the 
Bible  in  its  favor.  Christianity  is  the  theory  of  which 
witchcraft  is  the  practice.  And  here  I  refer  you  to 
that  old  barbarian  book:  Deut.  xiii.  io;  i  Sam. 
xv.  22  ;  2  Chron.  xxxiii.  6  ;  2  Kings  ix.  22  ;  Mich.  v.  12  ; 
Nah.  iii.  4;  Gal.  v.  20.  Now,  all  commentators  on  the 
Bible  are  agreed  that  the  witchcraft  here  threatened 
with  death  by  the  Christian  God  is  nothing  more  nor 
less  than  “  commerce  with  God  and  with  the  invisible 
world,”  in  order  to  “reveal  its  mysteries.”  And  it 
will  be  sufficient  if  I  quote  from  Dr.  Adam  Clarke,  the 
most  learned  and  popular  of  all  that  have  attempted  to 
interpret  that  old  barbarizing  book  for  our  benefit. 
His  huge  commentary,  in  six  large  volumes,  now  lies 
before  me,  for  which  I  paid  thirty  dollars  when  I  was 
myself  a  revival  Methodist  preacher.  Dr.  Clarke,  in 
his  notes  on  Exodus  xxii.  18,  says  :  — 

“  The  term  rendered  ‘  witch  ’  is  from  the  Hebrew  casaph 
—  to  reveal,  uncover;  and  it  signifies  commerce  with  God; 
a  person  who  professes  to  reveal  hidden  mysteries  by  com¬ 
merce  with  God  or  the  invisible  world.” 

Now,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  this  definition  covers  the 
entire  ground  of  mysticism,  including  all  Christians, 
all  Mormons,  and  all  modern  mediums  and  Spiritualists. 
Each  of  these  classes  certainly  professes  to  have  com- 


IDEOLOGY. 


I  1 6 

merce  with  the  invisible  world.  Modern  mediums  offer 
their  services  to  humanity  as  an  “open  door  to  the 
condition  man  enters  at  death  and  Theodore  Parker, 
who  while  he  lived  had  no  faith  in  any  such  revelation, 
said,  as  an  off-set  to  Christianity  :  “  Why,  the  modern 
Spiritualists  have  been  to  the  Christian  hell,  and  they 
tell  us  upon  their  return  that  there  are  no  devils  there.” 

Moreover,  notice  how  this  definition  of  witchcraft 
interdicts  the  gospel  of  the  New  Testament.  It  for¬ 
bids  commerce  with  God  and  the  invisible  world,  for 
revealing  hidden  mysteries, — the  identical  thing  that 
was  done  by  Jesus  and  by  all  his  apostles.  The  New 
Testament  is  replete  with  these  declarations:  “We 
speak  the  wisdom  of  God  in  a  mystery.”  “According 
to  the  revelation  of  the  mystery.”  “Made  known  to 
us  the  mystery  of  his  will.”  “  My  knowledge  in  the 
mystery  of  Christ.”  “Great  is  the  mystery  of  god¬ 
liness.”  “As  stewards  of  the  mysteries  of  God.” 

A  page  or  more  might  be  filled  with  similar  quota¬ 
tions,  showing  that  when  Dr.  Clarke’s  definition  of 
witchcraft  forbids  commerce  with  God  and  the  invisible 
world,  for  revealing  hidden  mysteries,  it  forbids  the 
praying  of  Christians,  and  interdicts  the  preaching  of 
ail  the  priests.  Thus  does  Christianity  use  itself  up. 
Its  faith  is  self-created,  and  thus  it  is  self-destroyed. 
Hence  the  identity  of  Christianity  and  witchcraft.  In 
defining  one  you  describe  the  other.  What  stultifica¬ 
tion  !  What  monstrous  inconsistency  !  And  thus 
obfuscated  by  faith  in  mysticism,  it  has  been  for  Chris¬ 
tians,  unlike  all  other  classes,  to  put  their  victims  to 
death  for  doing  what  they  themselves  do.  Those 
suspected  of  witchcraft  protested  that  they  were 
not  witches  nor  wizards  ;  nor  did  they  know  what 


THE  BIBLE  IDEA  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  1 1 7 

witchcraft  was, — a  delusion  founded  on  the  trances  of 
Abraham,  Daniel,  Peter,  and  Paul,  each  of  whom  was 
obfuscated  in  a  dreamy  state  of  trance  when  he  had 
“visions  and  revelations  from  the  Lord.”  So  Chris¬ 
tianity —  this  same  witchcraft  founded  upon  a  state  of 
self-induced  trance  —  metes  out  supreme  contempt  on 
mediums  of  the  present  day.  How  inconsistent  and 
cruel  this  persecution  is  I  can  see,  because  I  know  that 
the  pathology  and  the  psychology  of  the  trance  is 
always  the  same,  as  it  is  in  dreams  and  fits,  and  in 
mental  derangement.  Hence  it  is  monstrously  incon¬ 
sistent  for  any  Christian  or  theologian  to  ridicule  a 
modern  medium  in  this  regard. 

These  mediums  I  have  known  from  the  beginning, 
and  Christianity  I  have  myself  preached,  and  I  have 
known  what  it  is  for  sixty  years  ;  and  it  is  my  opinion 
that  I  have  seen  many  modern  mediums  far  more  u  in¬ 
spired”  than  St.  Paul  was  when  he  is  said  to  have  had 
“visions  and  revelations  from  the  Lord.”  Also,  I  have 
heard  as  good  advice  given  by  them  as  any  found  in  the 
Bible,  or  ever  heard  from  the  pulpit.  On  account  of 
these  persecutions  I  can  also  see  an  inconsistency 
when  Spiritualists  take  upon  themselves  the  name  of 
Christians. 

I  say  nothing  more  now  on  this  subject  than  merely 
to  refer  to  the  two  cases  that  have  occurred  under  the 
auspices  of  Spiritualism  of  spirit  babes  reported  born, 
as  I  refer  to  that  “overshadowing”  narrated  of  Mary. 
[Inquire  of  Mr.  A.  E.  Newton  and  John  M.  Spear.] 
Here  call  on  any  Christian  layman  or  minister,  except¬ 
ing  one  named  J.  C.,  to  tell  me  his  opinion  as  to 
whether  there  was  not  something  like  “  commerce 
with  God”  in  that  case  of  “overshadowing” 


nar- 


ii  8 


IDEOLOGY. 


rated  in  Luke  i.  26-30 ;  and  as  to  whether  we 
should  ever  have  had  any  Jesus  or  Christianity  with¬ 
out  that  bewitching  process  in  that  commerce  with  the 
third  person  in  the  Godhead  ?  The  Bible  speaks  of 
four  invisible  personages,  — three  in  the  Godhead,  and 
the  old  boss  Devil ;  and  I  call  on  any  Christian  who 
will  do  so  to  give  me  his  rule  by  which  he  can  distin¬ 
guish  between  these  personages.  How  does  he  deter¬ 
mine  the  sexhood  and  the  personal  identity  of  an 
indivisibility  ?  and  how  does  he  prove  as  to  what  kind 
of  intercourse  any  one  may  have  had  with  the  invisible 
world  ?  How  does  he  determine  the  number  of  invis¬ 
ibles,  or  as  to  whether  there  is  one  ?  and  if  more,  how 
many  ?  How  can  he  make  it  to  appear,  if  he  is  a 
Christian,  that  his  commerce  with  God  differs  from 
that  of  a  wizard  ? 

“  Inflated  with  Frenzy.  —  Dr.  Clarke,  in  his  notes  on 
Lev.  xix.  31,  says  :  “A  wizard  is  one  who  in  his  com¬ 
merce  with  the  invisible  world  becomes  inflated  with 
frenzy and,  as  an  illustration,  he  quotes  and  empha¬ 
sizes  Virgil  as  follows  :  — 


“  Invoke  the  skies, 

I  feel  the  rushing  God !  she  cries. 

While  yet  she  spake,  enlarged  her  features  grew  ; 

Her  color  changed,  her  locks  dishevelled  flew. 

The  heavenly  tumult  reigns  in  every  part  — 

Pants  in  her  breast ,  and  swells  her  rising  heart. 

Still  swelling  to  the  sight ,  the  priestess  glowed, 

And  heaved  impatient  of  the  incumbent  God.” 

—  PEneid  1.  vi.  ver.  46. 

During  my  twenty  years  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church,  I  attended  many  a  Methodist  pic-nic,  where  I 
always  saw  more  or  less  of  what  is  described  in  the 


THE  BIBLE  IDEA  OF  WITCHCRAFT.  I  1 9 

foregoing  from  Virgil.  There  is  not  so  much  of  this 
“ frenzy”  manifested  in  revivals  or  at  the  pic-nics  as 
there  was  fifty  years  ago ;  and  yet  they  tell  us  that  the 
ism  is  like  “the  word  of  the  Lord,”  —  it  never  changes. 
But,  if  so,  how  are  we  to  account  for  it  that  there  have 
been  no  victims  hung  for  witchcraft  lately  ?  If  any  of 
my  readers  desire  to  witness  the  Methodist  process  of 
bewitching  the  people  with  their  own  ideas  of  mysti¬ 
cism,  go  to  one  of  their  pic-nics,  where  for  a  week  they 
keep  up  the  drilling  with  sermon,  prayer,  and  song ;  or 
attend  one  of  Moody’s  harangues. 

I  hope  I  may  not  be  the  only  one  left  now  living 
who  attended  the  preaching  of  the  “far-famed”  Rev. 
John  N.  Maffit.  He  was  an  Irishman,  and  believed 
himself  eloquent,  as  his  manner  of  drilling  was  quite 
successful.  I  remember  his  meetings  in  Boston,  and 
his  suit  for  libel  against  Mr.  Buckingham,  editor  of  the 
Boston  “Courier,”  in  1824.  His  suit  was  a  failure. 

“  Thou  Shalt  Not  Suffer  a  Witch  to  Live."  —  There 
it  stands  in  that  old  Christian  book,  —  a  collection  of 
books  on  mysticism,  so  old  that  nobody  knows,  or  ever 
can  know,  by  whom  they  were  written,  or  when.  Two 
hundred  years  ago  what  a  terrible  command  was  that 
to  be  uttered  from  the  pulpit  every  Sunday ! 


“  It  is  all  one  — 
To  be  a  witch,  or  stispected  one.” 


Also,  what  a  “  suspicion  ”  was  that  to  become  a 
panic  in  a  church,  a  neighborhood,  a  country,  and 
throughout  Christendom  !  This  is  Christianity’s  death- 
warrant,  —  the  keystone  to  the  Christian  arch  that  sup¬ 
ports  the  gallows  it  executes  its  victims  on.  Hence, 


120 


IDEOLOGY. 


adopting  the  theological  definition  of  witchcraft  as 
correct,  it  follows  that  every  Christian,  every  priest, 
every  Mormon,  every  modern  medium  and  Spiritualist, 
should  forthwith  be  hung  or  burnt  at  the  stake. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


THE  BIBLE  IDEA  OF  MEDIUMS. 

All  good  Christians  believe  their  God  has  “inspired” 
and  thus  made  “mediums”  of  beasts ;  nay,  that  he  has 
actually  “created”  ugly  monsters  “near  his  throne  in 
heaven,”  that  are  now  shouting  his  glory  “both  day 
and  night,”  as  indeed  they  will  do  forever. 

As  we  shall  see,  that  old  barbarian  book  begins  and 
ends  with  these  disgusting  details  :  — 

THE  SERPENT  A  MEDIUM. 

“  Now  the  serpent  was  more  subtile  than  any  beast  of  the 
field  the  Lord  God  had  made.  And  it  said  unto  the  woman, 
‘  Yea,  hath  God  said  ye  shall  not  eat  of  every  tree  of  the  gar¬ 
den?’” —  Gen.  iii.  i. 

This  account  affirms  that  God  had  made  the  snake, 
and  so  he  made  the  Devil  to  inspire  or  mediumize  it 
with  human  speech.  Thus  the  Bible  opens  with  an 
account  of  the  “Devil  ”  having  inspired  and  “medium- 
ized”  a  snake,  by  which  it  talked  and  argued  with  a 
human  tongue  !  And  hence  in  all  the  history  of  ancient 
and  modern  mediumship  both  “the  Devil”  and  “the 
serpent  ”  held  rank,  and  stand  at  the  head  of  that  list, 
even  above  God  and  the  rest  of  mankind.  Nor  is  it 
apparent  why  Christians  should  not  freely  admit  that 


I  2 1 


122 


IDEOLOGY. 


the  serpent  was  as  really  “  entranced  ”  by  the  Devil,  and 
more  than  Adam  could  have  been  by  his  Creator !  At 
any  rate,  as  it  is  manifest  that  the  Devil,  having  inspired 
and  mediwnized  that  serpent,  was  the  occasion  that 
resulted  in  sin,  Christianity,  heaven,  and  hell,  it  follows 
that  the  Bible,  and  all  that  credulity  has  made  out  of 
that  old  book,  have  resulted  from  the  Devil’s  having 
mediumized  and  “inspired”  that  snake  with  human 
speech. 

Did  the  reader  ever  hear  any  Christian  give  any 
reasonable  argument  why  God  made  the  Devil  ?  Why 
he  made  that  slimy  snake  ?  Or  why  he  permits  this 
Devil  still  in  his  destructive  work  ? 


THE  JACKASS  A  MEDIUM. 

“  And  the  Lord  opened  the  mouth  of  the  ass,  and  he  said 
unto  Balaam,  Am  I  not  thine  ass  ?  ”  —  Num.  xxii.  29. 

Of  an  ass  thus  inspired  it  has  been  truly  said,  “An 
ass  responds  to  an  ass.” 


TWO  SHE-BEARS,  MEDIUMS. 

“  And  Elisha  turned  and  looked  on  the  children,  and  cursed 
them  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  And  there  came  forth  two 
she-bears  out  of  the  wood,  and  tare  forty  and  two  children  of 
them.” — 2  Kings  ii.  24. 

Of  course,  for  he  created  those  ferocious  beasts,  and 
“inspired”  them  for  chewing  those  children:  — 

“ God”  made  their  teeth  and  claws  so  very  sharp, 

To  be  glutted  with  human  gore  ! 

Graces  on  which  his  preachers  never  harp ; 

Such  providences  they  ignore  ! 


THE  BIBLE  IDEA  OF  MEDIUMS. 


123 


MONSTERS  MADE  MEDIUMS. 

“And  in  the  midst  of  God’s  throne  were  four  beasts,  full 
of  eyes  before  and  behind.  And  the  first  beast  was  like  a 
lion,  and  the  second  beast  like  a  calf,  and  the  third  beast 
had  a  face  as  a  man,  and  the  fourth  beast  was  like  a  flying 
eagle.  And  the  four  beasts  had  six  wings  about  him,  and 
they  were  full  of  eyes  within,  and  they  rest  not  day  and 
night,  saying,  ‘  Holy,  holy,  holy,  Lord  God  Almighty.’  ”  — 
Rev.  iv.  6. 

The  writer  of  such  stuff  as  this  must  have  been 
entranced  in  order  to  get  off  such  vagaries.  So  of 
Peter ;  when  entranced  he  saw  an  opening  in  heaven, 
and  “wild  beasts  and  creeping  things”  coming  out  of 
heaven  ! 

Now,  I  have  only  to  observe  that  our  humanity  has 
always  protested  against  all  forms  of  mediumism  be¬ 
tween  it  and  the  unknowable  ;  because  both  the  forms 
of  witchcraft,  ancient  and  modern,  are  crimes  against 
human  selfhood  and  self-control !  Every  form  of  me- 
diumship  between  Gods  and  ghosts,  real  or  imaginary, 
is  a  crime  against  humanity.  The  yielding  up  of  self¬ 
hood  and  self-control  to  an  idea  of  an  unknown  person¬ 
age  cannot  be  justified.  A  matured  mind  can  have  no 
normal  right  thus  to  abnegate  its  own  selfhood.  Most 
of  the  mediums  in  this  country  who  travel  and  make  a 
business  of  giving  “tests,”  I  have  had  more  or  less 
knowledge  of ;  and,  while  I  admit  that  in  all  other 
respects  they  may  have  been  very  excellent  people,  yet 
I  am  compelled  to  say  that,  as  far  as  I  know,  they  were 
deteriorated  in  health  and  in  integrity  of  character  by 
their  mediumship.  Their  lives  are  shortened,  not  to 
speak  of  the  number  that  commit  suicide,  in  order  the 


124 


IDEOLOGY. 


sooner  to  reach  the  “summer  land,”  nor  the  many  that 
have  been  rendered  insane  by  entrancement,  for  there 
never  was  a  state  of  real  catalepsy  or  trance  without 
more  or  less  hallucination.  What  else  can  follow  when, 
to  become  a  medium,  you  must  yield  up  your  own  self¬ 
hood  and  self-control? 


CHAPTER  XV. 


BLOODY  IDEAS,  ALL  BESMEARED  WITH  BLOOD. 


“Almost  all  things  are  by  the  law  purged  by  blood,  and  without  shedding  of  blood 
there  is  no  remission.”  —  Heb.  ix.  22. 

First  it  may  be  well  for  me  to  state  what  the  Chris¬ 
tian  idea  is  and  always  was  as  to  the  “providence  of 
God.” 

“  Are  not  two  sparrows  sold  for  a  farthing  ?  And  one  of 
them  shall  not  fall  to  the  ground  without  your  Father.  But 
the  very  hairs  of  your  head  are  all  numbered.  Fear  ye^not, 
therefore  :  ye  are  of  more  value  than  many  sparrows.”  — 
Matt.  x.  29. 

“  Who  provideth  for  the  raven  his  food,  when  his  young 
ones  cry  unto  God.”  —  Job  xxxviii.  41. 

Now,  to  show  you  that  there  is  another  side  to  this 
picture  of  “  God’s  providence.”  His  “providence”  has 
now  been  at  work  at  least  for  six  thousand  years,  and 
mathematics  do  not  afford  us  the  means  of  estimating  the 
billions  of  billions  of  human  lives  that  have  been  cut 
short  by  this  same  “providential  care”  that  “provides 
the  young  raven  its  food.”  Alas !  who  can  tell  how 
vast  the  number  must  have  been  destroyed  by  earth¬ 
quakes  !  Christians  and  all  the  rest  of  us  are  forgetful 
of  that  terrible  catastrophe  a  mid-Atlantic  island,  or 
continent,  the  Atlantis  of  Plato,  — destroyed  thousands 
of  years  ago  by  earthquakes  and  eruptions,  preserved 


125 


126 


IDEOLOGY. 


in  history  by  the  Egyptians,  the  Mexicans,  Malays,  and 
the  Scandinavian,  and  less  in  detail  by  other  nations. 
The  great  volcano  of  Jorullo,  in  Mexico,  rose  up  in  the 
shape  of  a  bladder,  from  the  centre  of  an  arid  plain,  on 
the  night  of  September  the  29th,  1759.  Subterranean 
noises,  accompanied  by  earthquake  shocks,  had  been 
heard  in  the  vicinity  since  the  preceding  June  ;  but  the 
elevation  of  a  mountain  five  hundred  feet  high  was  the 
work  of  only  a  few  hours.  It  was  precociously  lively, 
for  it  at  once  began  belching  forth  fire  and  ashes,  cover¬ 
ing  the  roofs  of  Oueretaro,  forty-eight  miles  distant, 
with  cinders. 

An  earthquake  in  Aleppo  destroyed  thirty  thousand 
lives;  in  1850,  at  Naples,  6,000;  in  Italy,  in  1851, 
14,000,  and  a  few  years  after,  2,200;  in  1859,  in  Peru, 
5,000;  in  1861,  at  Mandaga,  7,000;  in  1863,  at  Phil- 
lipine  Islands,  10,000;  in  i860,  in  Peru,  25,000;  in 
Persia,  in  1879,  1,000;  in  1881,  in  Scio,  8,000;  in 
1883,  in  the  Island  of  Ischia,  2,000;  in  1833  and  1837, 
in  Asia  Minor,  I4,676were  made  homeless  ;  and  in  1883 
an  earthquake  and  volcano  in  Java  destroyed  100,000 
lives ! 

These  details  are  given  as  suggestive  reminders. 
Earthquakes  have  occurred  for  thousands  of  years  be¬ 
fore  and  since,  all  by  this  “providence  of  God”  that 
“  counts  the  hairs  of  your  head.”  But  the  men,  women, 
and  children  destroyed  by  them  exceed  the  power  of 
history  or  figures  to  show.  Cyclones  also  have  slain 
their  uncounted  thousands. 

Cyclones,  tornadoes,  and  death  in  all  forms; 

For  “  God  ”  slays  millions  in  an  hour, 

As  in  the  earthquakes,  shipwrecks,  and  the  storms, 

By  his  “providential  power.” 


BLOODY  IDEAS. 


127 


By  Floods.  —  In  1813,  a  flood  in  Silesia  destroyed 
6,000  human  lives  ;  in  1833,  a  flood  in  Canton,  China, 
destroyed  1,000;  in  1842,  in  St.  Domingo,  5,000  more 
were  thus  destroyed  ;  in  1872,  by  a  flood  in  Syria,  5,000 
were  engulfed;  in  1876,  a  storm-wave  swept  over 
Bengal,  and  90,000  human  lives  perished  in  it ;  in  1870, 
a  flood  in  Hungary  swept  away  6,000  people  and  12,000 
of  their  dwellings. 

By  Ferocious  Beasts.  —  How  this  “  Providence  ”  man¬ 
aged  to  chew  up  forty  and  two  Hebrew  children  we 
have  already  seen. 


God  made  their  teeth  and  claws  so  sharp  and  nice, 
To  be  glutted  with  human  gore  ; 

As  the  lion,  bear,  tiger,  rats,  and  mice, 

And  savage  creatures  many  more  ! 


Famine.  —  The  numbers  starved  to  death  every  year, 
for  thousands  of  years  past,  swell  the  beauties  of  this 
“  Providence  ”  more  and  more. 

Railroad  Smash-Ups. — Are  these  catastrophes  not 
as  “providential”  as  when  that  omniscient  eye  “sees  a 
sparrow  fall  ”  ? 

Shipzvrecks. — Who  could  truly  say  that  all  such 
calamities,  by  which  innumerable  lives  have  been  lost, 
are  not  as  ‘  providential  ”  as  any  other  events  ? 

Tornadoes.  —  Who  produces  the  tornado,  if  it  be 
not  the  “  Creator  ”  of  all  worlds  ? 

Volcanoes. — The  eruption  in  1877  in  Cotopaxi  de¬ 
stroyed  1,000  lives  ;  and  another  in  1815,  in  Tambaroora, 
destroyed  all  the  12,000  people,  except  a  few  that  were 
left  to  perish. 

But  I  forbear  to  extend  these  details  of  war,  of 
poisons,  of  the  cholera  and  yellow  fever,  every  one  of 


128 


IDEOLOGY. 


which  is  brought  about  by  the  Bible  God  as  really  as 
he  ever  did  anything  else,  besides  destroying  the  lives 
that  humanity  had  brought  into  existence. 


God  sends  our  troubles  as  he  plans  the  rain, 
And  disasters  on  land  or  sea, 
Oft-repeated,  without  regard  to  pain, 

So  shocking  to  our  humanity. 


HE  IS  A  BLOOD-THIRSTY  GOD. 

And  to  quote  all  the  Bible  says  in  support  of  this 
statement,  I  should  have  no  room  for  anything  else. 
I  will  give  you  only  a  few  texts  :  — 

“  They  have  moved  me  to  jealousy  by  that  which  is  not 
God.  For  a  fire  is  kindled  in  mine  anger,  and  it  shall  burn 
unto  the  lowest  hell,  and  shall  consume  the  earth  with  the 
increase,  and  set  on  fire  the  foundations  of  the  mountains.” 
—  Deut.  xxxii.  21,  22. 

“  And  Moses  took  the  blood  and  sprinkled  it  on  the  people. 
And  he  said,  ‘  Behold  the  blood  of  the  covenant  which  the 
Lord  hath  made  with  you.’  ”  —  Ex.  xxiv.  8. 

The  Jews  were  always  engaged  in  war,  and  their 
God  always  fought  for  them  ;  and  two  instances  only  of 
his  “  providential  dealings  ”  with  them  I  will  refer  to 
here :  — 

“  And  the  Lord  discomfited  the  enemies  before  Israel, 
and  slew  them  with  a  great  slaughter  at  Gibeon,  and  chased 
them  along  the  way  that  goeth  up  to  Beth-horan,  and  smote 
them  unto  Makkedah.  And  it  came  to  pass,  as  they  fled 
before  Israel  and  were  going  down  to  Beth-horan,  that  the 
Lord  cast  great  stones  upon  them,  and  they  died.  There  were 
more  that  died  with  hailstones  than  they  whom  the  children 
of  Israel  had  slain  with  the  sword.” — Josh.  x.  io,  ii. 

The  other  miraculous  “ providence”  in  behalf  of  the 
Jewish  bloody  war,  is  as  follows  :  — 


BLOODY  IDEAS. 


129 


“Then  spake  Joshua  to  the  Lord  in  the  day  when  the 
Lord  delivered  up  the  Amorites  before  the  children  of  Israel, 
and  he  said  in  the  sight  of  Israel,  iSun,  stand  thou  still  upon 
Gibeon ,  and  thou  Moon,  in  the  valley  of  Ajalon .’  And  the  sun 
stood  still,  and  the  moon  stayed,  until  the  people  had  avenged 
themselves  upon  their  enemies.  And  there  was  no  day  like 
that  before  it  or  after  it,  that  the  Lord  hearkened  unto  the 
voice  of  a  man;  for  the  Lord  fought  for  Israel.”  —  Josh.  x. 
12,  14. 


DRIPPING  WITH  HUMAN  BLOOD. 

The  Christian  churches  are  all  of  them  founded  on 
“  saving  faith  ”  in  human  blood,  and  they  show  their 
imitation  of  their  “  God  idea  ”  in  thirsting  for  human 
blood,  else  they  never  could  have  put  to  death  so  many 
millions  of  their  Christian  friends  under  a  false  charge 
of  witchcraft. 

“To  feed  the  church  of  God,  which  he  has  purchased  with 
his  own  blood.”  —  Acts  xx.  28. 

“  Whom  God  hath  set  forth  to  be  a  propitiation  through 
faith  in  his  blood.”  —  Rom.  iii.  25. 

“Much  more,  then,  being  now  justified  by  his  blood.”  — 
Rom.  v.  9. 

“The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin.”  — 
1  John  i.  7. 

“In  whom  we  have  redemption  through  his  blood.”  — 
Eph.  i.  7. 

“Jesus,  also,  that  he  might  sanctify  the  people  with  his 
own  blood.”  —  Heb.  xiii.  12. 

“  Unto  him  that  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  his  own  blood.” 
—  Rev.  i.  5. 

“And  he  took  the  cup,  and  gave  it  to  them,  and  they  all 
drank  of  it ;  and  he  said  unto  them,  ‘  This  is  my  blood  of  the 
new  testament,  which  is  shed  for  many.’  ”  —  Mark  xiv.  24. 

Hence,  in  the  “sacrament”  all  Christians  affirm 
their  trust  in  human  blood  for  salvation  from  a  hell  to 
which  they  were  never  exposed  !  Whereas,  there  is 
not  a  particle  of  proof  that  Jesus  died  on  the  cross: 


130 


IDEOLOGY. 


he  swooned.  Nor  could  he  have  shed  any  amount  of 
blood  ;  for  he  was  alive  shortly  after,  and  declared  that 
he  had  never  been  dead,  as  he  said  to  his  doubting 
disciples  :  — 

“  ‘  Behold  my  hands  and  my  feet  that  it  is  I  myself.  Han¬ 
dle  me  and  see ;  for  a  spirit  hath  not  flesh  and  bones,  as  ye 
see  me  have.’  And  he  showed  them  his  hands  and  his  feet.” 
—  Luke  xxiv.  39. 

Thus  have  I  shown  you  that  — 

“God’s  providence”  is  over  all  or  none, 

Both  of  the  living  and  the  dead  ; 

And  thus  you  can  see  what  this  God  has  done, 

That  shocks  humanity  with  dread. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


BARBARIAN  LIES. 

With  the  pathology  and  the  ideology  of  the  trance 
and  insanity,  I  have  been  professionally  familiar  for 
sixty  years  or  more.  Nor  can  I  feel  any  regret  in  view 
of  my  twenty  years’  experience  in  Methodist  revivals, 
where  I  had  the  most  ample  opportunity  for  witnessing 
the  enhancement  of  my  “converts,”  that  were  to  be 
the  “stars  in  my  future  crown  of  rejoicing.”  There  it 
was  that  I  learned  the  reason  for  a  statement  attributed 
to  Jesus,  as  to  the  “broad  way  ”  and  the  “few  that  are 
saved;”  for  the  trance  depends,  like  “conversion,” 
upon  the  temperament.  Hence,  it  is  only  “the  few,” 
in  any  multitude,  that  are  “converted,”  only  “a  few” 
that  are  “entranced,”  “a  few,”  very  “few,”  that  ever 
become  mediums. 

The  trance  is  self-induced  always.  It  is  not  produced 
by  the  mere  volition  of  another ;  so  are  what  is  called 
“miraculous  cures”  self-induced,  and  I  am  indebted  to 
the  experience  I  had,  in  getting  up  Methodist  revivals, 
for  my  knowledge  of  the  trance  and  its  correlative  phe¬ 
nomena.  These  religious  trances  I  never  supposed 
produced  by  the  “  Holy  Ghost ;  ”  and  they  put  me  upon 
an  experimental  course  of  investigation  that  resulted  in 
the  scientific  lectures  and  investigations  that  I  after- 

I3I 


132 


IDEOLOGY. 


wards  gave  on  Ideology,  throughout  these  United 
States,  from  1836  to  1852. 

When  false  ideas  are  adopted  long  enough  to  become 
crystallized  in  the  human  mind,  I  have  found  it  of  no 
use  to  point  out  their  falsehood.  There  is  no  “royal 
road”  inherent  in  the  human  mind  for  distinguishing 
between  truth  and  error.  We  except  the  social  rela¬ 
tions,  the  living  source,  and  the  foundation  of  all  virtue, 
which  are  instinctive  alike  in  all  minds.  Hence,  it 
would  not  be  of  much  use  for  me  to  tell  of  the  numer¬ 
ous  cases  I  have  known,  during  the  last  sixty  years,  of 
theologians  who  have  studied  the  Bible  the  most,  and 
have,  for  this  reason,  utterly  rejected  it  as  a  “revela¬ 
tion  ”  of  anything,  except  ignorance  and  credulity.  One 
minister  I  know  who  read  the  New  Testament  through 
upon  his  knees  in  prayer  who  now  does  not  believe  a 
word  of  it !  And  I  could  fill  a  volume  with  the  names 
of  Christian  ministers  who  within  the  last  fifty  years 
have  outgrown  their  faith  in  Christianity. 

The  Bible  is  a  barbarian  book.  It  was  written  by 
barbarians.  They  may,  indeed,  have  believed  what  they 
wrote,  when  they  said  that  their  “God”  had  “mesmer¬ 
ized  ”  Adam,  because  he  could  not  create  for  him  a  wife 
in  any  other  way;  and  that  their  “God  ”  had  made  a 
serpent,  with  human  speech,  in  order  to  tempt  Adam 
and  ruin  the  human  race,  and  all  theologians  believe 
this. 

A  lie  is  a  falsehood  told  with  an  intention  to  deceive. 
A  falsehood  may  be  uttered  when  there  is  no  motive 
for  any  deception,  when  there  is  no  lie  ;  and  as  we  find 
in  the  Bible  a  number  of  writers  and  a  conglomeration 
of  falsehoods,  and  upon  a  variety  of  subjects  of  sur¬ 
passing  importance  to  humanity,  this  old  barbarian 


BARBARIAN  LIES. 


133 


book,  in  its  makeup,  becomes  a  gigantic  lie.  It  is  such 
a  monstrous  lie  as  to  its  origin,  and  the  mischief  it  has 
done  to  the  human  race,  that  it  should  be  exposed  at 
at  once  and  forever.  One  fact  may  be  here  referred  to 
as  demonstrating  this  truth  as  to  the  Bible,  and  it  is 
this  one,  namely  :  that  those  believing  in  the  divinity 
of  this  book  have  murdered  millions  of  each  other, 
under  the  false  suspicion  of  witchcraft.  Nor  is  there 
any  other  way  for  accounting  for  such  a  destruction  of 
human  life  than  by  supposing  that  Christians  must  have 
been  misled  by  faith  in  that  old  Jewish  book. 

The  first  chapters  in  the  Bible  are  sufficient  to  prove 
how  wofully  both  the  Jews  and  Christians  have  been 
deceived  by  the  monstrous  lies  recorded  in  that  book. 
Its  account  of  God  having  entranced  Adam,  when  he 
was  the  only  man  living,  is  a  lie.  If  this  were  true,  it 
would  follow  that  humanity,  Christianity,  the  Devil, 
Jesus,  and  all  that  has  followed  since  Adam’s  trance, 
have  depended  upon  that  state  of  trance,  without  which 
he  would  never  have  had  any  wife.  Nay,  more :  but 
for  the  trance,  Naaman,  Abraham,  and  Daniel  would 
never  have  known  that  there  were  any  “E-lo-him,” 
Gods,  two,  or  two  thousand.  One  man  knows  as  well 
as  another  how  many  there  are. 

Humanity  has  long  been  tossed  about 
With  this  “  word  of  God  ”  for  a  guide, 

And  hence  our  race  has  always  been  in  doubt, 

As  well  it  knew  how  some  one  had  lied  ! 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


HUMANITY  FOREVER. 

And  now  I  hope  that  I  may  have  shown  to  the  impar¬ 
tial  reader  that  my  Hygienic  and  Psychological  discov¬ 
eries  originated  the  new  idea  of  self-induction  and 
self-evolution,  agreeing  with  all  we  know  of  selfhood, 
self-growth,  and  self-control  in  the  whole  of  things.  As 
the  wound  is  always  self-healed,  so  are  all  forms  of  dis¬ 
ease  self-cured,  when  cured  at  all.  What  are  called  by 
Christians  miraculous  cures  are  self-made,  and  usually 
by  faith  in  sensational  ideas,  such  as  caused  the  trance 
of  Peter  and  Paul.  During  my  public  lectures  on  Ideol¬ 
ogy  throughout  these  United  States,  on  my  platform  I 
had  more  than  five  hundred  surgical  operations  per¬ 
formed  on  patients  in  a  state  of  mental  anaesthesia, 
self-induced.  Such  marvels  as  these  were  never  known 
in  Christianity,  nor  will  they  ever  be  produced  by 
“  Christian  Science,”  I  think. 

Now,  how  is  it,  my  friend,  that  you  do  not  seem  to 
see  that  self-cures  are  constantly  occurring  in  all  the 
different  schools  of  medicine,  and  in  spite  of  the  method 
of  cure  ?  The  nervous  system  is  plastic  in  this  regard, 
and  the  nutritive  economy  is  always  ready  to  heal  the 
wound,  to  mend  a  broken  bone,  and  to  cure  any  cura¬ 
ble  disease.  But  a  knowledge  of  the  primordial  laws 


T34 


HUMANITY  FOREVER. 


135 


and  forces  of  hygiene  and  psychology  must  be  better 
than  Christianity  can  be  in  the  relief  of  human  suffer¬ 
ing,  I  am  sure ;  and  *  in  attestation  of  this,  which  I 
believe  to  be  the  highest  and  best  method,  I  have  a 
work'  Entitled,  “  Longevity :  the  Secret  of  Permanent 
Health  Explained  and  Demonstrated  by  Forty  Thou¬ 
sand  Recent  Centenarian  Cases.” 

Honestly  and  sincerely,  for  many  long  years,  I  tried 
the  Christian  method  of  relief  until,  as  a  Japanese  wri¬ 
ter  says,  I  found  that  Christianity  was  a  fraud,  and  led 
captive  at  the  feet  of  the  scientific  world.  It  cures  no 
wounds  that  its  dogmatism  has  not  previously  made, 
and  utterly  ignores  science  and  human  reason.  Hence, 
it  is  said  (Luke  xiii.  23)  it  only  cures  “a  few,”  because 
only  a  few  are  of  that  temperament,  that  state  of  igno¬ 
rance  and  credulity,  which  exercises  “saving  faith”  in 
phenomena  believed  to  be  mystical,  no  matter  whether 
they  be  so  or  not. 

In  Nature’s  order  we  see  instinctive  movements 
from  the  mineral  to  the  vegetable,  from  the  vegetable 
to  the  animal ;  and  thence  to  innervation,  sensation, 
consciousness,  thinking,  memory,  and  ideas.  Nature’s 
order  is  alive  with  instinctive  movements  throughout, 
from  the  lowest  to  the  highest,  from  first  to  last ;  as 
in  the  whole  of  things  in  this  world,  and  in  the 
solar  system  and  the  universe,  there  are  dual  move¬ 
ments  that  indicate  analogies  of  consciousness  and 
memory.  The  solar  system  knows  what  to  do,  and 
this  it  does.  So  in  the  mineral  and  the  mental  worlds. 
You  plant  the  seed,  and  it  knows  how  to  come  up 
the  same  in  kind.  The  seed,  in  favorable  condition, 
knows  what  it  wants,  and  securing  it,  the  germ 


136 


IDEOLOGY. 


grows  ;  and  here  I  refer  to  Nature’s  instinctive  provi¬ 
dence,  infinitely  more  real  and  trustworthy  than  the 
Christian  idea  of  “God’s  providence,”  that  is  said  to 
“pity  the  sparrow  that  dies;”  and  this,  too,  when  he 
destroys  a  hundred  thousand  men,  women,  and  children, 
as  in  Java  not  long  since. 

The  real  providential  work  in  Nature’s  order  may  be 
seen  in  all  things,  as  in  the  vegetable  kingdom ;  it 
deposits  the  food  with  the  germ  that  is  to  feed  upon  it 
in  commencing  its  growth.  But,  higher  still,  it  provides 
our  food  for  us  before  we  are  born,  and  enough  to  last 
us  a  year  after  we  begin  to  live,  when  Humanity  was 
once  young,  — what  our  Christian  friends  never  seem  to 
think  of.  They  are  obfuscated  by  “saving  faith”  in 
their  ideals.  They  have  not  yet  discovered,  what  be¬ 
came  apparent  to  me  when  I  was  myself  a  Methodist 
revival  minister,  that  ideals  are  always  imaginary ,  never 
real. 

The  human  race  was  once  young,  as  the  child  is 
to-day.  Now,  we  know  how  characteristic  ignorance , 
faith ,  and  helplessness  are  of  childhood,  and  such  was 
the  condition  of  the  race  when  the  story  was  current 
about  a  first  man  “created,”  how  he  was  entranced, 
and  one  of  his  ribs  cut  out  to  make  him  a  wife  of. 
Yet  to-day,  that  silly  story  is  drilled  into  the  minds  of 
children,  in  the  Sunday  schools  ;  and  they  believe  it,  as 
their  ancestors  did  before  them.  When  the  masons  build 
a  house  of  brick  or  stone,  it  is  easy  for  them  to  build  into 
the  structure  their  own  names,  so  that  they  could  never 
be  wiped  out  without  destroying  the  building.  Simi¬ 
larly  so  with  the  young  brain.  As  the  instinctive 
forces  are  building  it  up,  by  the  addition  of  inconceiv- 


HUMANITY  FOREVER. 


137 


ably  small  particles,  then,  if  false  ideas  are  recorded  by 
memory  upon  its  laminated  corrugations,  it  becomes 
hard  to  rub  them  out. 

Much  depends  upon  the  temperaments ;  and  these 
may  be  represented  by  the  metals  from  lead  to  steel. 
From  metal  that  is  easily  impressed,  like  lead,  we  know 
how  easily  the  marks  may  be  removed.  On  steel,  it  is 
difficult  to  make  an  impression  ;  and  when  made  it  is 
hard  to  remove.  Thus  we  see  many  Christians,  good 
people,  it  may  be,  carry  these  false  ideas  down  with 
them  to  the  grave. 

It  was  a  barbarous  age  when  the  God-idea  was  origi- 
nated  from  a  state  of  trance  and  mediumship  ;  and  in 
this  function  the  snake  and  the  Devil  were  the  first  to 
figure.  But  while  the  mind  has  no  inherent  faculty  for 
discriminating  between  the  truthful  and  the  false  ideas 
advanced  by  another,  we  are  all  controlled  by  our  own 
ideas  alike.  And,  as  I  have  before  said,  a*!l  the  brains  of 
Christians,  Popes,  and  priests  that  ever  live:!,  if  united 
in  one  cranium,  say  as  big  as  this  globe,  would  be 
nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  human  mind ;  nor  could 
it  evolve  any  idea  above  the  human.  However  inspired 
it  might  be,  all  its  utterances  would  be  only  human, 
and  no  human  idea  can  measure  omniscience  or  illimit¬ 
able  space. 

Similarly  as  each  one  of  us  aspires  and  grows  to  man¬ 
hood,  does  our  humanity  grow, — only  from  within; 
in  despite  of  its  youth,  in  despite  of  all  Gods,  in  de¬ 
spite  of  the  slain  by  witchcraft,  ancient  or  modern.  It 
provides  for  all  its  own  wants,  and  heals  all  the  wounds 
made  by  Christianity  and  other  forms  of  mysticism.  It 
is  even  now  a  complete  success.  Still  progressing  and 


IDEOLOGY. 


138 

encouraging,  let  us  hope  more  and  more  for  the  future. 
Happy  are  those  who  can  duly  appreciate  that  paternity 
and  maternity  in  humanity  whence  they  were  born. 


And  what  of  youth  and  imperfection  ? 

The  human  hope  does  shine  in  every  breast, 
That  we’ll  outgrow  all  barbaric  misdirection, 
When  on  Humanity  at  last  we  rest. 


IDEOLOGY: 

THE  ROMANCE  AND  MIRACLE 

IN 


IDEAL  CONTAGION 


AND 


MENTAL  EPIDEMICS. 


MEN  GO  MAD  IN  CROWDS. 


By  Dr.  LaRoy  Sunderland, 

FOUNDATION  FELLOW  OF  THE  SOCIETY  OF  SCIENCE,  LITERATURE  AND  ART,  LONDON. 


VOLUME  II. 


PUBLISHED  BY  J.  P.  MENDUM,  BOSTON,  MASS, 

AT  THE  OFFICE  OF  THE  BOSTON  INVESTIGATOR. 

1885. 


Copyright,  1885. 


PREFACE. 


One  origin,  one  nature,  and  one  destiny  !  One 
humanity,  one  life,  and  one  hope  , —  in  humanity’s 
lap  to  rest !  As  the  future  is  better  to  one,  so 
it  must  be  to  each  one  and  to  all.  Has  not 
Nature  “  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men, 
to  dwell  upon  all  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  deter¬ 
mined  the  times  before  appointed  and  the  bounds 
of  their  habitation  ?  ”  And  is  there  any  “  church,” 
any  society,  any  clique  or  ring,  more  “sacred,” 
more  “  holy  ”  or  divine,  than  a  human  family  ? 
Is  there,  or  can  there  be,  a  greater  “  miracle  ” 
than  man  is  himself?  Or,  if  you  say  that  gods 
work  the  miracles,  I  reply  that  the  “  God  idea  ” 
is  human,  and  the  miracle  of  living  human  brains. 
No  ideas  of  gods  or  ghosts  were  ever  known  until 
there  were  human  brains  for  their  evolution.  In 
all  we  know,  therefore,  of  the  whole  of  things, 
man  is  himself  the  greatest  wonder,  and  of  mir¬ 
acles  he  is  at  the  head  of  the  list.  Motion  and 
chemism  are  perfected  in  manhood.  He  is  the 
only  living  organism  we  know  that  evolves  ideas. 


in 


IV 


PREFACE. 


The  social  relations  of  humanity  are  the  living 
foundation  and  the  only  source  of  virtue,  —  jus¬ 
tice,  goodness,  and  truthfulness,  —  and  its  prac¬ 
tice  does  not  depend  upon  books  nor  creeds,  nor 
alleged  revelations  from  myths  in  the  sky.  From 
the  fraternal  element  in  humanity  comes  all  we 
know  of  justice,  equity,  and  individual  sovereignty. 
“  But,”  says  one,  “  if  the  elements  of  fraternity 
and  virtue  are  innate  in  humanity, 'how  is  it  to  be 
accounted  for  that  the  human  race  has  become 
so  much  divided  and  broken  up  into  belligerent 
parties  ?  ”  It  is  not  any  fault  in  virtue  that  the 
race  has  become  divided  into  nations.  But  it 
may  be  for  a  want  of  the  fraternal  when  the 
nations  fight  and  devour  one  another.  And  there 
is  another  cause  more  potent  for  discords  and 
persecutions,  and  that  is  found  in  false  ideas. 
I  have  attempted  to  show  that  the  human  mind 
is  controlled  by  false  ideas,  that  hold  it  to  any 
given  course  of  conduct  with  equal  power  as  if 
they  were  true ;  and  to  this  state  of  things  it  is 
owing  that  Christians  fail  to  yield  to  humanity 
any  credit  for  the  good  that  humanity  has  done 
for  itself.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  Christians 
persecute  those  that  never  persecuted  them. 
Nay,  more :  for  they  persecute  and  make  war 
upon  each  other.  Uncounted  millions  of  Chris¬ 
tian  men  and  women  and  children  have  been 
slain  by  Christian  hands !  It  is  appalling  to 


PREFACE. 


V 


contemplate  the  immense  numbers  murdered  by 
Christians  for  alleged  witchcraft.  This,  too,  when 
science  shows  that  for  Christianity  itself  there  is 
no  better  or  more  appropriate  term  than  this  one 
of  witchcraft.  And  how  many  ignorant  and  silly 
people  have  those  mountebanks,  revivalists,  be¬ 
witched?  Hence,  in  all  preceding  ages,  both 
Protestant  and  Popish  Christians  have  perse¬ 
cuted  not  only  one  another,  but  “  all  the  rest  of 
mankind.” 

And  here  I  am  reminded  of  a  recent  case  of 
persecution  that  seemed  to  me  as  black  and 
infamous  as  that  in  former  ages,  when  Christians 
were  less  informed,  and  put  the  objects  of  their 
hatred  to  a  cruel  death.  I  allude  to  that  hard¬ 
hearted  bigot,  J.  C.,  in  his  having  followed  and 
persecuted  the  Liberal  editor  of  The  New  York 
Truth  Seeker  in  1883,  when  he  was  in  a  foreign 
country  on  his  tour  around  the  world. 

Was  there  ever  in  Popery  a  more  unfraternal 
deed  than  that?  It  was  not  enough,  it  seems, 
for  this  Christian  harpy,  Cook,  to  perambulate 
over  these  United  States  uttering  his  slanders 
where  Mr.  Bennett  was  far  better  known,  and  a 
thousand  times  more  appreciated  for  his  moral 
worth,  than  this  Cook  ever  was  or  ever  will  be; 
but,  true  to  the  persecuting  instincts  of  Chris¬ 
tianity,  he  followed  Mr.  Bennett  into  a  foreign 
country,  where  he  may  have  supposed  that  they 


VI 


PREFACE. 


were  both  of  them  unknown.  And  there,  in 
Ird’  this  Cook  embraced  the  first  chance  he 
had  or  reaching  the  public  ear  for  charging 
India's  guest  as  having  been  convicted  of  some 
crime  in  America  for  which  he  had  been  fined 
and  imprisoned  !  Could  anything  be  meaner  and 
less  fraternal  ?  And  that  is  Christianity,  —  that 
form  of  faith  in  mysticism  which  for  two  thousand 
years  has  persistently  proclaimed  hell-fire  and 
eternal  damnation  for  a  vast  majority  of  the 
human  race!  The  Christian  admits  no  one  as  a 
brother  who  is  not  bamboozled  and  victimized 
by  the  same  delusion.  Hence  it  is  an  enemy  to 
humanity.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  conceive  how 
the  human  race  could  have  a  greater  foe.  It  is 
false  in  its  inception,  false  in  its  foundation,  false 
in  its  theory,  and  deserves  everlasting  execration 
from  the  good  and  true  everywhere  upon  the 
face  of  this  globe. 

We  never  hear  of  persecution  from  Freethink¬ 
ers  and  Liberals.  Infidels  never  slay  their  own 
children  to  secure  their  immediate  admission  to 
paradise.  Nor  is  it  the  fault  of  Liberals  that 
they  do  not  recognize  in  Joseph  Cook  “a  friend 
and  a  brother.” 

And  you  may  have  heard  of  that  English 
philanthropist  and  brother  to  the  human  race, 
George  Thompson,  who  twice  visited  this  coun¬ 
try  in  behalf  of  universal  emancipation.  Well, 


PREFACE. 


Vll 


I  have  a  picture  of  a  poor  slave  that  Mr.  Thomp¬ 
son  gave  me  fifty  years  ago,  now  on  my  table, 
and  with  the  chains  of  slavery  it  bears  this  motto: 
v  “  Am  I  not  a  friend  and  a  brother  ?  ” 

Hail !  to  those  of  every  land  and  name, 

All  who  prefer  Fraternity  to  fame, 

And  those  conflicts  that  cover  man  with  shame 
Unworthy  most,  and  cruel ! 

One  brotherhood  forever  hence  is  mine  ; 

From  this  centre  the  truth  shall  ever  shine, 

For  the  highest  good,  human  and  divine  , — 

The  purest,  brightest  jewel.  • 


Quincy,  Mass.,  March  31,  1SS5. 


CONTENTS. 


I.  —  Gullibility. 

II.  —  Mental  Epidemics. 

III.  —  The  South  Sea  Bubble. 

IV.  —  The  Mississippi  Scheme. 

V.  —  The  Crusades. 

VI.  —  The  Trance  Epidemic. 

VII.  —  Fascination. 

VIII.  —  Religious  Revivals. 

IX.  —  Clairvoyance. 

X.  —  The  Witchcraft  Madness. 

XI.  —  Modern  Witchcraft. 

XII.  —  Mediumship  a  Wide-spread  Epidemic. 

XIII.  - PSYCHOMETRY  AND  DEADHEADS. 

XIV.  —  The  Contagious  Dance  of  Death. 

XV.  —  And  What  Then? 

XVI.  —  Science. 


VI 11 


CHAPTER  I. 


GULLIBILITY. 


“Oft  in  my  laughing  rhymes  I  name  a  gull, 

But  this  new  term  will  many  questions  breed, 

Wherefore,  at  first,  I  will  express  at  full 
Who  is  a  true  and  perfect  gull  indeed.” 

—  Sir  J.  Davis ,  Ep.  2. 

The  first  important  question  to  be  answered  is,  as  to 
the  practicable  in  gullibility.  What  is  the  real  benefit  ? 
What  is  human  life  assisted  by  the  practicable  in 
fanaticism  ?  Infatuation.  What  is  the  good  and  the  true 
that  comes  to  us  when  we  fancy  ourselves  on  a  royal 
road  to  science  or  to  heaven  ?  A  fanatic  in  the  oil 
regions  of  Pennsylvania,  speaking  of  one  of  his  own 
clique  in  gullibility,  who  by  “prospecting”  successfully, 
as  many  others  have  done,  calls  it  “  the  practical  in 
modern  mediumship.”  As  we  conceive  gullibility  to  be 
that  mental  condition  which  allows  one  to  be  duped, 
it  cannot  be  supposed  of  so  much  consequence  as  to 
how  we  may  be  gulled  ! 

This  appertains  more  or  less  to  childhood  and  adoles¬ 
cence,  and  a  man  may  be  a  child  in  this  regard  when  a 
hundred  years  old.  The  one  was  young  once,  and  it  was 
then  certainly  gulled  as  any  one  is  to-day.  In  one 
respect  each  of  us  may  lack  in  experience,  and  on  one 
subject  we  may  be  more  liable  to  be  gulled.  This  will 
depend  not  only  upon  the  subject,  but  upon  our  make-up, 


i 


2 


IDEOLOGY. 


our  temperament,  our  idiocrasy,  our  age,  our  education, 
our  circumstances  and  friends  at  the  time. 

Those  called  “  sensitives,”  that  have  credulity,  or  an 
easiness  of  belief,  on  a  given  subject,  are  not  so  apt  to 
ask  any  questions  as  to  the  practical  in  gullibility. 
They  are  deceived  and  gulled  but  too  often.  Nor  is 
this  the  fault  of  science  or  of  humanity.  We  are  all 
children,  —  ignorant,  helpless,  and  credulous,  —  before 
we  are  matured  in  manhood.  Nor  do  I  perceive  how  I 
could  do  ample  justice  to  ideal  contagion  and  men¬ 
tal  epidemics,  without  a  brief  consideration  of  the  real, 
the  practical.  How  do  people  act  when  they  are  gulled  ? 
And,  as  to  the  practical,  what  is  the  difference  in  what 
is  called  infatuation,  fanaticism,  and  mental  derange¬ 
ment  ? 

All  are  upon  a  dead  level  to  believe  what  seems  to 
us  true.  Nor  are  men  to  be  quarrelled  with  as  to  what 
they  may  or  may  not  believe.  But  their  conduct  may 

be  criticised.  It  is  the  conduct  in  what  one  talks  and 

■ 

puts  in  his  habits  of  living  that  becomes  the  practica¬ 
ble,  and  this  is  a  legitimate  matter  for  criticism.  But 
a  very  small  percentage  of  the  human  are  born  on  a 
royal  road.  Only  now  and  then  one  is  born  a  “  sensitive,” 
a  somnambulist,  a  “clairvoyant,”  ora  “wonder-monger.” 
Only  a  few  rely  on  “faith  ”  in  things  unseen. 

“  If  on  it  you  dare  rely, 

That  faith  itself  is  power.” 


Only  concede  that  the  idea  is  of  the  dead,  and  mat¬ 
ters  unknown  to  science  and  the  physical  world,  and 
the  credulity  excited  so  as  to  induce  implicit  trust 
in  this  idea,  and  the  corresponding  phenomena  are 
thus  induced  in  the  mind  and  nervous  system. 


GULLIBILITY. 


3 


1 

« 


A  woman  who  had  been  lame  for  a  long  time,  in  the 

poor-house  at - ,  heard  of  certain  cures  made  by  the 

waters  of  an  “  all-healing  spring,”  recently  discovered 
in  that  vicinity.  She  wearied  the  superintendent  out 
with  her  importunities  for  some  of  that  water  ;  and  so, 
finding  that  the  woman  would  not  be  pacified,  the  super¬ 
intendent  filled  a  few  bottles  with  water  from  his  own 
well,  and  he  carried  them  to  the  cripple,  and  expressed 
the  hope  that  they  “ would  answer.”  Whereupon  the 
old  woman  was  overjoyed,  and  no  sooner  having  applied 
the  water  she  threw  aside  her  crutch,  and  danced  about 
in  her  ecstacy. 

She  had  been  cured,  and  she  remained  cured  for 
some  weeks,  rejoicing  in  the  virtues  of  the  water  from 
the  “all-healing  spring.”  In  the  mean  time  the  super¬ 
intendent,  thinking  the  joke  too  good  to  keep,  reported 
what  he  had  done,  and  this  of  course  soon  after  reached 
the  ears  of  the  cured  cripple,  when,  alas  !  her  faith  gave 
out,  she  took  to  her  crutch,  and  was  lame  again,  pre¬ 
cisely  as  before. 

A  sick  man,  not  far  from  my  office  in  New  York, 
called  on  his  physician  for  a  prescription  ;  and  the 
doctor,  being  somewhat  engaged,  wrote  on  a  small 
piece  of  paper,  which  he  threw  down  upon  the  table  to 
the  patient,  saying,  “There, — take  that !  ”  The  sick 
man  seized  the  paper  and  went  home.  In  a  few  days 
he  returned  to  pay  his  bill,  when  he  declared  himself 
cured  by  swallowing  that  paper  the  doctor  gave  him  to 
“take;”  but  he  added  that  “it  was  rather  hard  to 
swallow.” 

Volumes  might  be  filled  with  similar  details,  showing 
that  faith  is  equally  powerful  over  the  nervous  system 
when  exercised  in  a  false  idea.  Now,  observe,  that  in 


4 


IDEOLOGY. 


what  I  have  here  said  I  illustrate  and  prove  the  phi¬ 
losophy  of  faith,  which  is  a  human  volition,  and  a  key¬ 
stone  to  the  structure  erected  by  Christianity  and 
modern  mediumship. 

Is  not  Mr.  Andrew  J.  Davis  a  “sensitive”  ?  He  is 
a  voluminous  writer,  and  has  uttered  numerous  good 
ideas  and  true.  And  yet,  in  the  rank  and  file  of  mod¬ 
ern  mediumship,  who  is  more  of  a  “wonder-monger” 
than  he?  He  began  what  he  calls  his  “clairvoyant 
career”  in  1844  by  an  explicit  endorsement  of  the 
Bible  and  Christianity.  He  was  then  under  the  aus¬ 
pices  of  “Mesmerism;”  and  of  that  exploded  theory 
he  approved,  and  always  when  entranced,  by  the  sug¬ 
gestion  of  another,  he  was  wont  to  bend  his  body  over 
on  one  side,  and  call  it  “  Clairmativeness.”  Thus,  he 
commenced  as  a  “seer”  and  “clairvoyant  ”  by  express¬ 
ing  the  most  extravagant  claims  to  perfect  knowledge. 
In  his  lectures  on  “Clairmativeness,”  he  says  :  — 

“  I  have  now  attained  the  highest  degree  of  Knowledge 
which  the  human  mind  is  capable  of  acquiring.  I  am  mas¬ 
ter  of  the  general  sciences ,  can  speak  all  languages,  impart 
instruction  upon  those  deep  and  hidden  things  in  nature 
which  the  world  has  not  been  able  to  solve.”  —  Lectures  on 
Clairmativeness ,  by  A.  J.  Davis ,  New  York.  Printed  by 
Searing  and  Pratt ,  1845. 

“  Clairmativeness  signifies  clearly  reversed.  The  minds  of 
magnetized  persons  are  completely  reversed  when  in  the 
trance  and  clairvoyant  state.”  —  lb.  p.  34. 

Six  years  after  the  above  was  published,  that  is,  in 
1852,  Mr.  A.  J.  Davis  published  the  third  volume  of  his 
“Great  Harmonia,”  and  on  page  210  of  this  volume, 
while  in  the  same  state  of  “perfect  vision”  and  clair¬ 
voyance,”  Mr.  Davis  professes  to  repiidiate  his  clairvoy¬ 
ance  of  1845.  Yet,  on  page  265,  in  this  same  volume, 


GULLIBILITY. 


5 


he  reaffirms  his  claim  to  perfect  knowledge,  and  shows 
that  his  repudiation  was  not  real  and  sincere.  No 
“wonder-monger,”  not  even  Jesus,  ever  claimed  knowl¬ 
edge  in  so  large  a  sense  as  Mr.  Davis,  who  still  informs 
us  that  his  eyes  are  big  enough  to  “ see  beyond  the  boiLnds 
of  time  and  space” 

In  1847  I  met  Mr.  Davis  in  Charlestown,  Mass., 
when  I  presented  him  with  a  copy  of  a  book  I  had  just 
issued  on  Pathetism  (Ideology),  in  which  I  had  criti¬ 
cised  his  assumptions  somewhat.  Mr.  Davis  took  the 
book,  and,  without  opening  it,  held  it  between  his  two 
hands,  when  he  said  to  me  :  — 

“  I  do  not  have  to  read  any  book.  I  merely  hold  it  in  my 
hands  in  this  way,  when  I  thus  become  sufficiently  familiar 
with  its  contents  immediately  without  reading  it.” 

But  I  could  not  help  thinking  that  method  smacked 
somewhat  of  gullibility  and  fanaticism,  and,  when  I 
came  to  read  one  of  Mr.  Davis’s  next  volumes  that  he 
issued,  I  could  not  very  well  resist  the  conviction  that 
he  had,  after  all,  read  the  book  I  gave  him ;  for  I  noticed 
ten  or  twelve  quotations  of  my  language  that  Mr.  Davis 
had  transferred  to  his  work,  and  without  any  quotation 
marks,  precisely  as  if  they  were  original  with  him,  — 
albeit,  he  did  venture  to  say,  I  think,  in  his  table  of 
contents,  “a  quotation  from  ‘Pathetism.’  ” 

In  the  spiritual  writings  of  Swedenborg,  the  terms 
“wonderful,”  “most  wonderful,”  and  “wonders  seen 
and  heard,”  are  of  constant  occurrence  ;  and  the  first 
word  usually  uttered  by  all  who  witness  the  phenomena 
of  which  the  “mysterious  rap”  is  the  type  is  “Won¬ 
derful  !  ”  But  to  the  truly  philosophical  eye  it  is  not 
wonderful  at  all  when  people,  abandoning  themselves 


6 


IDEOLOGY. 


to  these  phenomena,  we  find  them  carried  into  extremes 
of  fanaticism,  and  giving  currency  to  absurdities  like 
the  following,  which  have  recently  appeared  in  what 
may  be  called  the  official  papers  of  mediumship. 

The  Boston  Banner  of  Light  teaches  that  individual 
forms  are  never  destroyed,  as  when  an  acorn  is  eaten 
by  the  pig  it  remains  ever  an  acorn.  Both  that  paper 
and  all  other  Spiritual  ones  teach  that  spirits  have  the 
power  not  only  to  annihilate  the  human  will,  but  that 
spirits  do,  also,  remove  the  medium’s  own  spirit  from 
the  body.  These  papers  teach  the  silly  notion  that 
the  human  spirit  can,  and  that  it  does,  leave  the  body, 
and  appear  to  mediums  in  two  or  more  places  at  once. 
They  teach  also  that  the  form  and  conscious  individu¬ 
ality  of  a  spirit  is  ungenerated  and  eternal.  “  Narra¬ 
tives”  of  “spirits  ”  are  published,  in  which  they  give  an 
account  of  their  consciousness  before  they  were  born , 
and  also  of  consciousness  of  their  condition  in  the 
foetal  state.  Indeed,  volumes  of  this  trash  have  been 
published. 

If  such  ideas  do  not  prove  gullibility,  there  is  no 
meaning  in  them.  So  of  other  mediums.  Here  I 
must  add  that  a  medium  by  the  name  of  C.  Pinkham 
called  on  me  not  long  since,  with  his  prospectus  for  a 
“New  God  and  a  new  Bible,”  which  was  “written  by 
Jesus,  formerly  of  Nazareth.”  He  calls  himself  Prof. 
C.  P.  George  Washington,  celestial ,  spiritual  clairvoyant 
and  pyschometristf  “  vicegerent  of  the  new  Godandjesns 
Christ  upon  earth." 

From  page  31  of  his  new  Bible  I  quote  the  following 
characteristic  paragraph  :  — 

“  Is  man  always  made  through  animal  congress  of  oppo¬ 
site  sexes  ?  No.  After  spirits  are  formed,  and  have  passed 


GULLIBILITY. 


7 


into  the  spiritual  sphere,  they  may  act  upon  and  through  the 
most  perfected  orang-outangs,  and  impregnate  the  egg  of 
the  mother,  if  taken  just  at  the  right  time,  when  it  passes 
down  the  fallopian  tube,  with  a  fine  essence,  so  that  a  child 
will  be  brought  forth  without  animal  congress,  and  superior 
to  what  can  be  brought  forth  from  opposite  sexes  in  the  body ; 
and  by  the  former  process  was  Jesus,  formerly  of  Nazareth, 
brought  forth  by  the  action  of  a  celestial  being  upon  and 
through  Mary  his  mother.  This  made  Jesus  more  perfect 
than  he  could  have  been  if  he  had  been  begotten  through 
animal  congress  by  a  father  in  the  body.” 


And,  for  aught  I  know,  this  same  Pinkham  may  have 
been  born  of  an  orang-outang,  and  may  thus  be  con¬ 
sidered  as  a  living  demonstration  as  to  what  the  mon¬ 
key  tribe  and  the  mediums  can  do.  But  if  this  be  not 
gullibility,  what  should  it  be  called  ?  Gulled  from  the 
beginning.  Here  is  a  “message”  from  a  “dead  hero,” 
that  was  given  to  me  nearly  forty  years  ago  by  one  of 
the  Fox  family.  This  was  communicated  to  one  of  the 
girls :  — 

“  Mysteries  are  going  to  be  revealed.  The  world  will  be 
enlightened.  I  sign  my  name  :  Benjamin  Franklin.” 

The  invisibles  assume  any  names  or  any  shape  that 
suits  the  fancy  of  their  victim,  and  thus  the  medium  is 
flattered  with  the  idea  of  “guardian  spirits,”  and  his 
fulfilment  of  some  “important  mission”  which  will 
astonish  the  world.  This  is  practical  gullibility ;  and 
this  same  idea  of  something  “wonderful”  to  be  done 
or  said  by  each  medium  has  been  the  characteristic 
charm  in  mediumship,  from  the  first  rap  to  the  last 
one.  Hence  it  has  come  to  pass  that  large  numbers 
of  mediums,  overcome  for  a  while  with  the  idea  of 
“spirits,”  have  finally  recovered  their  self-control,  and 


8 


IDEOLOGY. 


have  thus  been  enabled  to  recover  themselves  from  the 
hallucinations  attempted  upon  them.  Scores  of  such 
mediums  I  have  known,  and  thousands  of  them  could 
be  heard  from  throughout  the  country. 

The  “miracle”  and  the  “wonder”  cease  when  we 
comprehend  the  forces  that  have  produced  the  pheno¬ 
mena.  When,  therefore,  it  so  happens  that  one  himself 
forms  an  element  in  these  forces,  we  must  bear  in  mind 
that  he  cannot  pull  himself  up  by  his  own  shoe-strings. 
The  lid  is  never  large  enough  to  cover  itself.  Man 
never  makes  a  fulcrum  of  himself  for  the  lever  by  which 
he  attempts  the  removal  of  heavy  bodies.  Consider, 
moreover,  the  condition  of  the  human  mind  when  it 
becomes  gulled  by  the  intense  excitement  of  the  organs 
of  wonder,  and,  this  excitement  extending  by  the  well- 
known  laws  of  sympathetic  imitation,  large  masses  of 
mind  become  thus  fused  and,  as  it  were,  melted  to¬ 
gether. 

Thus,  in  all  religious  revivals,  all  panics,  all  mental 
epidemics,  in  the  crusades,  in  all  wars,  in.  witchcraft, 
and  now  in  the  case  of  mediums.  Thus  it  is  we  find 
persons  bewitched  with  the  idea  of  the  “trance,”  and 
“spirit  control.”  They  seek  to  become  mediums,  and 
pay  large  fees  to  mountebanks  whose  professional 
business  it  is  to  travel  about  the  country  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  “developing  mediums.”  These  charlatans 
work  upon  the  principle,  “  The  greater  the  ignorance, 
the  more  spirit  control”!  And  I  have  seen  the 
operations  in  what  are  yclept  “developing  circles.” 
The  operator  seizes  the  arms  of  his  victim,  and, 
shaking  them  violently,  repeats  over  and  over  again, 
“Now  —  now  the  spirits  have  got  hold  of  you!” 
“  There,  there,  you  see  now  you  can’t  stop !  ”  A 


GULLIBILITY. 


9 


pencil  is  put  into  the  would-be  medium’s  hand,  and  then 
the  operator  jerks  the  hand  over  a  piece  of  paper,  say¬ 
ing,  “There,  now  —  now  you  can  write  under  spirit 
control  !  ”  In  this  manner  the  minds  of  the  ignorant 
and  credulous  are  worked  upon  from  day  to  day,  until 
“simultaneously  they  believe  and  comply .”  Here,  for 
example,  is  the  style  in  which  gullibility  advertises  :  — 

“  Two  Days’  Meeting,  Sunday,  at  2  J  and  7^  p.  m.  ;  also 
Monday,  at  2J  and  7^  p.  m.  The  Heavenly  Father,  Jesus 
the  Lamb  of  God,  Apostles,  and  the  Holy  Angels,  will  all 
manifest  their  intense  love  and  interest  for  all  mortals, 
wherever  they  are.  Some  tests  given  of  spirit  friends. 
Healing  and  speaking,  &c.  A  glorious  day  is  coming.  No. 
588  Washington  Street.  Grace  Royal  and  four  female 
mediums.  Seats  free.” 

This  is  from  the  Boston  “Herald,”  and  a  sample  of 
what  is  constantly  appearing  in  all  the  mystical  papers. 
Indeed,  you  may  find  constantly  advertised  in  the 
columns  of  these  papers  what  are  called  “dealings  ”  or 
“conversations”  “with  the  dead,”  including  Adam, 
Eve,  Solomon,  and  all  the  prophets.  Nor  is  this  as¬ 
sumption  confined  to  the  lower  class  of  mediumistic 
mountebanks  ;  for  it  is  characteristic  of  the  foremost 
mediums,  recognized  as  such  in  the  ranks  of  medium- 
ship.  Here  is  what  J.  L.  Pardee,  a  well-known  medium 
(that  was  awfully  scared  when  he  came  to  die),  says  of 
himself :  — 

“  I  will  now  give  you  the  view  which  has  been  given  to 
me,  as  I  believe,  by  not  only  ancient  Grecian  and  Hebrew 
intelligences  in  the  spirit,  but  the  Nazarene  himself.  As  I 
believe  that  the  latter  communicates  directly  with  many,  I  do 
not  think  it  a  piece  of  vanity  or  immodesty  to  declare  that  I 
believe  he  directly  communicates  with  myself.”  —  Banner  of 
Light ,  Feb.  29,  1868. 


IO 


IDEOLOGY. 


This  extract  is  from  a  long  article  endorsing  the  com¬ 
mon  error  in  respect  to  Christ’s  imagined  death  upon  the 
cross.  Oh!  no,  Mr.  P.,  it  would  not  be  considered  “a 
piece  of  vanity  ”  in  you  at  all  were  you  to  affirm  that 
the  moon  was  made  of  green  cheese,  and  you  knew  the 
fact,  because  you  had  been  there  and  tasted  of  it !  The 
credulous  gullet  must  be  large,  indeed,  to  swallow  such 
stuff  as  this. 

An  article  under  the  head  of  “  Mediumistic  Laws,” 
in  No.  107,  “  Herald  of  Progress,”  by  one  John  C.  Grin¬ 
ned,  pretends  to  explain  the  difference  “between 
tweedledum  and  tweedledee ;  ”  and  A.  J.  Davis  en¬ 
dorses  it  as  “explaining  many  things  in  Spiritualism.” 
And  such  trash  as  this  is  called  an  explanation !  Take 
one  sentence  as  a  specimen  of  the  lucidity  of  this 
dumbhead  :  — 

“  Why  spirits  do  not  apparently  remember  what  they  have 
communicated  through  other  mediums.  —  The  impression  of  a 
spirit  on  the  memory  of  a  medium  whose  memory  is  weak  is 
not  as  good  as  on  one  whose  memory  is  strong.  The  spirit 
never  forgets,  but,  owing  to  the  organs  of  the  medium,  cannot 
convey  what  he  wishes.  When  the  spirit  apparently  fails  to 
remember  what  he  communicated  at  another  circle,  it  is  the 
medium’s  memory  that  is  at  fault,  not  the  spirit’s.” 

Is  it  not  true,  as  has  been  often  said  before,  that 
mediumship  is  a  nose  of  wax,  which  can  be  twisted, 
compressed,  drawn  out,  tucked  in,  and  shaped  into  ten 
thousand  forms,  so  as  to  suit  the  ever-varying  notions 
of  those  who  yield  their  minds  in  taking  things  for 
granted  about  another  world  ?  “  Spirits  never  forget.” 

Indeed !  And  pray,  how  do  you  know  that  spirits 
never  forget  ? 

See,  here,  in  the  Banner- man,  for  gullibility  :  — 


GULLIBILITY. 


I  I 


“  The  question  raised,  as  to  whether  the  spirit  of  a  mortal 
can  leave  its  abode  and  manifest  itself  to  parties  at  a  distance, 
sufficiently  clear  to  be  identified,  while  the  medium  is  being 
used  by  am  invisible  spirit  for  the  purpose  of  giving  a  com¬ 
munication  from  the  spirit-world,  has  been  so  often  tested 
that  the  fact  is  well  established  in  the  minds  of  Spiritualists 
generally.  In  the  Message  Department  of  the  ‘Banner’ 
this  week,  our  invisible  friends  discuss  the  subject  in  regard 
to  the  frequent  visits  across  the  Atlantic  of  Mrs.  Conant’s 
spirit,  while  one  of  the  invisibles  was  holding  converse  at 
our  Public  Circle  in  Boston  direct  through  the  agency  of 
Mrs.  C.’s  physical  form.  It  will  interest  the  reader.”  — 
Banner  of  Light ,  June  23,  1866. 

That  mortals  of  a  peculiar  tcmperame?it  may,  in  their 
own  brains,  have  conceptions  of  distant  persons,  is  true 
enough,  and,  for  all  such  conceptions,  Psychology  is 
abundantly  able  to  account,  and  without  admitting  this 
absurd  notion  in  the  Banner- man’s  head.  He  may 
believe  it,  and  quote  the  testimonies  in  his  “  Message 
Department  ”  for  it,  as  he  may  quote  them  also  for  any 
vagaries  that  ever  entered  a  human  noddle. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  apocryphal  character  of 
these  pretended  revelations,  take  the  following  from 
“The  Herald  of  Progress”  and  “The  Banner  of 
Light.”  Yet  the  trash  contained  in  these  so-called 
“communications”  is  highly  commended  by  Judge 
Edmunds  “as  the  most  valuable  and  important  work 
that  the  literature  of  Spiritualism  has  yet  produced  ”  ! 
Here  is  “Joshua,”  “  Solomon,”  and  “George  Fox’s” 
advertisement :  — - 

“  ‘  Communications  from  the  Spirit  World,  given  by  Lorenzo 
Dow  and  others,  through  a  lady.’  Price,  25  cts.  Also, 
through  the  same  medium,  ‘  The  Rights  of  Man,  by  George 
Fox.’  Price,  6  cents.  In  press,  and  will  be  issued  February7 
14th,  ‘  Further  Communications  from  the  World  of  Spirits, 


12 


IDEOLOGY. 


on  subjects  highly  important  for  the  human  family.  By 
Joshua,  Solomon,  and  others.’  Through  a  lady.’  ” 

Judge  Edmunds  makes  this  significant  remark,  in 
puffing  the  above  senseless  stuff,  namely,  “  that  the 
external  manifestations  are  dying  out  .”  The  meaning 
of  which,  I  suppose,  is,  that  the  masses  have  gone  so 
deeply  into  the  indulgence  of  nervous  phenomena, 
which  they  attribute  to  spirits,  that  the  physical  man¬ 
ifestations  are  dying  out.  Hence  we  may  look  for  any 
amount  of  these  so-called  revelations  from  “  Solomon,” 
“Joshua,”  “Lord  Bacon,”  and  not  excepting  “Robin¬ 
son  Crusoe”  and  “Sinbad  the  sailor”  ! 

The  reader  must  not  suppose,  for  one  moment,  that 
the  gulled,  gullers,  nor  the  gullible  are  confined  to  the 
humbler  walks  of  life,  not  merely  among  the  mediums, 
the  Mormons,  or  religious  fanatics  of  either  class  ;  for 
we  often  find  that  the  more  learned  a  person  is  in  one 
department  of  science,  the  more  he  is  unfitted  inci¬ 
dentally  for  another  department.  Take,  for  example, 
the  case  of  Dr.  Robert  Hare,  who  died  not  long  since  in 
Philadelphia.  I  was  acquainted  with  him,  conversed 
with  him,  and  only  allude  to  his  case  here  because,  with 
his  “  machines  ”  for  calling  down  Washington,  Jeffer¬ 
son,  and  other  noted  dead  men,  from  “heaven,”  he 
gulled  multitudes  of  others.  If  there  was  ever  a  man 
justly  pronounced  a  fanatic,  Prof.  Hare  of  Philadelphia 
became  one  previous  to  his  death.  He  reported  that 
he  had  not  only  transmuted  copper  into  gold ,  but  that  in 
turning  the  “machine”  that  he  had  invented,  he  had, 
and  he  could,  at  any  time,  call  the  spirits  up  or  down 
from  the  vasty  deep  !  He  had  gained  the  practical  in 
gullibility  ! 


GULLIBILITY. 


13 


And  I  may  here  refer  to  a  woman  I  knew  when  a 
little  girl,  in  Western  New  York,  who  has  been  gulled 
herself  “many  a  time  and  oft.”  I  refer  to  her  by  each 
of  the  names  of  the  men  to  whom  she  has  been  mar¬ 
ried,  for  aught  I  know  :  “  Mrs.  Cora  V.  Hatch,  Daniels, 
Tappan,  Richmond.”  She  certainly  had  names  enough 
of  her  own,  and  without  any  reasons  except  those  found 
in  gullibility,  for  her  standing  on  a  public  platform  and 
announcing  herself  as  “Theodore  Parker,”  John  Wes¬ 
ley,  Webster,  Jefferson,  and  Calhoun!  She  is  gulled; 
and  one  she  had  gulled  gets  off,  about  Cora,  in  “The 
Herald  of  Progress,”  Feb.  9,  1861,  the  following 
eulogy :  — 

“  Perhaps  the  finest  and  best  adapted  instrument  these  un¬ 
seen  powers  have  yet  employed  is  Mrs.  Cora  V.  Hatch. 

“Daniel  Webster,  Clay,  Parker,  Andrew  Jackson,  speak 
through  her  organism  ;  not  brilliantly ,  not  perchance  with  the 
glow  and  burnish,  the  bone  and  sinew,  they  would  employ, 
could  they  reanimate  the  refuse  which  is  encoffined  in  their 
family  vaults,  but  they  speak  satisfactorily,  —  more  than 
that.” 

“  Mrs.  Hatch  has  one  fault ,  which  I  hope  her  spirit  friends 
will  overcome.  She  iterates  and  reiterates  the  leading 
thought  of  her  discourse  too  constantly.  She  manipulates  it 
so  frequently  that  it  loses  force,  —  like  a  clay  image  molded 
by  a  sculptor.  Strong,  bold  is  it  in  its  first  conception  and 
formation  ;  yet,  touched  again  and  again,  the  prominences  are 
flattened,  the  hollows  filled  in,  till,  from  very  repetition, 
the  original  idea  is  lost  sight  of,  and  the  promised  effect 
vanishes.” 

“Not  brilliantly”!  No,  indeed;  nothing  of  that 
sort  ever  fell  from  her  lips,  “entranced”  or  not,  that 
came  from  Webster,  Clay,  Parker,  or  Jackson.  And 
this  brings  me  to  the  confession  made  by  the  writer  in 
the  “  Herald,”  which  I  conceive  to  be  fatal  to  the 


14 


IDEOLOGY. 


claims  so  often  made  by  Mrs.  Hatch,  and  others  like 
her,  when  we  are  told  that  Webster,  Clay,  and  other 
different  personages  speak  through  her. 

We  also  see  Mrs.  Hatch’s  gullibility  when  we  notice 
how  constantly  she  makes  each  one  she  attempts  to 
personify  copy  all  her  faults.  Furthermore,  what  a 
characteristic  of  ignorance  and  incompetency  in  public 
speakers  !  See,  too,  what  a  compliment  the  writer  has 
paid  to  Webster,  Clay,  and  Parker,  in  the  expression  of 
her  hope  that  they  will  “overcome”  their  “faults”  in 
elocution  !  A  nervous  woman  shuts  her  eyes  and  sinks, 
it  may  be,  into  a  dreamy  state,  more  or  less  resembling 
a  state  of  real  trance  or  somnambulism  ;  and  while  in 
this  condition,  as  is  the  case  in  ordinary  diseases,  the 
brain  becomes  excited,  and  she  gets  off  a  harangue  in 
respect  to  “  the  seventh  sphere  and  the  sixth  circle  ”  ! 

This  same  Mrs.  H.,  or  whatever  her  present  name 
may  be,  has  been  reported  as  delivering  lectures  from 
Thomas  Jefferson,  Henry  Clay,  and  others  ;  and  the 
Spiritual  papers  have  published  her  performances  pre¬ 
cisely  as  if  their  conductors  did  really  believe  that 
Andrew  Jackson  and  other  defunct  personages  got 
inside  of  her  and  used  the  language  which  she  has 
attributed  to  them  ! 

Judge  Edmonds,  of  New  York,  was  a  real  olla  podriday 
a  high-going,  high-flying  medium.  He  had  “messages” 
and  “  communications  ”  from  “  Lord  Bacon,”  and  of 
which  he  published  royal  octavos.  In  addressing  him, 
Judge  Edmonds  assures  us  that  Lord  Bacon  used  such 
blarney  as  the  following  ;  and,  if  this  be  admitted  as 
true,  the  spirit  of  Bacon  has  been  gidled  since  he  was 
dead  !  Just  read  this  twaddle  :  — 


GULLIBILITY. 


15 


“  Dear  Judge  !  dear  Judge  !  dear  Judge  !  Your  mind  and 
mine  are  developed  very  much  alike !  This  conversation 
with  you,  dear  Judge,  is  a  green  spot  in  my  history.”  — 
Spiritiialisnt ,  R.  J.  W.  Edmonds,  vol.  i.  p.  37 3,  &c. 

Of  course  the  “dear  Judge”  swallowed  all  this.  He 
is  a  “learned  Judge,”  and  is  not  so  likely  to  be  de¬ 
ceived.  I  have  seen  accounts  of  spiritual  communica¬ 
tions  in  the  Judge’s  family,  upon  which  the  writers 
relied  implicitly,  and  gave  the  character  of  Mr.  Ed¬ 
monds  as  a  legal  Judge  as  the  reason!  A  “legal 
Judge”  forsooth!  and  he  a  medium,  susceptible  to 
abnormal  changes  in  his  own  nervous  system,  all  from 
the  states  of  his  own  mind,  and  on  these  accounts  more 
liable  to  be  gulled.  Read  these  two  volumes  published 
by  Judge  E.,  and  then  say  if  you  can  believe  that  he  has 
not  misjudged  in  respect  to  the  numerous  conversations 
he  thinks  he  has  had  with  Swedenborg  and  Bacon. 
Indeed,  throughout  the  pages  of  these  two  volumes 
there  are  characteristic  “manifestations”  that  prove 
beyond  all  reasonable  doubt  that  the  author  has  indeed 
been  most  essentially  gulled,  either  by  his  own  spirit 
in  the  body,  or  by  some  other  spirit  out  of  the  body, 
it  matters  not  which. 

Judge  Edmonds  is  a  high  example  of  gullibility.  He 
had  visions,  and  speaks  of  “spirits”  in  his  presence 
that  were  so  gulled  that  they  had  no  recognition  of  each 
other’s  presence  !  Yet  he  trusted  in  his  own  ideas  of 
what  no  one  can  know  ;  and,  of  course,  he  had  visions, 
and  saw  “spirits”  with  his  external  eyes,  and  held 
familiar  conversations  with  Swedenborg  and  with  Lord 
Bacon. 

I  do  not  perceive,  from  anything  I  find  in  these 
volumes,  that  Judge  Edmonds  has  ever  had  any  sus- 


1 6 


IDEOLOGY. 


picion  of  the  infamous  conduct  of  which  Lord  Bacon 
was  guilty,  but  evidently  pleased  and  flattered  with  the 
belief  that  he  was  really  holding  converse  with  “  the 
distinguished  personage  ”  of  Lord  Bacon,  the  Judge 
has  allowed  his  joy  to  slop  over,  thus  showing  that  he 
has  been  gulled. 

Here  is  another  paragraph  from  the  “oldest  spiritual 
paper,”  showing  how  this  movement  is  staked  upon 
errors  that  were  exploded  long  ago  :  — 

“  I  have  found  that  a  person  whose  mind  or  will-powex  is 
stronger  than,  or  superior  to,  another’s,  can,  in  the  body, 
mesmerize  or  control  the  body  of  another,  and  drive  there¬ 
from  his  mind  or  soul  power,  and  cause  that  body  to  act  as 
he  may  will ;  and  that  is  admitted  by  scientific  men,  and  is 
called  mesmerism.  But  if  that  same  mind  out  of  the  body 
controls  another  in  the  body,  causing  him  to  say  what  the 
mind  controlling  wills,  that  is  Spiritualism.” — Banner  of 
Light ,  Dec.  7,  1867. 

When  a  gullible  speaks  of  the  human  “  will,”  or  the 
power  of  choice,  or  selfhood,  as  being  “  controlled  ”  by 
God  or  a  ghost,  he  is  either  a  Christian  or  a  fanatical 
medium,  and  perhaps  both. 

It  shows  the  practical  in  gullibility  when  one  be¬ 
comes  a  fanatic  and  infatuated  with  his  own  notions. 
Originally,  we  are  told,  this  term  fanaticus  signified  an 
“inspired  priest,”  who  was  insane  and  frantic.  It  was 
applied  to  the  priests  when  they  became  raving  with 
divine  fury  ;  and  the  Boston  “  Banner  ”  tells  us  that 
J.  M.  Peebles  has  published  a  book  about  “  the  prac¬ 
tical  in  mediumship,”  when  he  “struck  ile”  in  the  oil 
regions  of  Pennsylvania,  as  the  reader  may  see  in  that 
paper  of  Nov.  21,  1868.  And  the  same  paper  gives  an 
account  of  practical  gullibility  in  its  report  of  a  medium 


GULLIBILITY. 


17 

by  the  name  of  Marble,  who,  in  Lynn,  Mass.,  “  under 
spirit  control,”  was  engaged  in  drilling  a  passage 
through  a  mountain  of  solid  rock,  with  the  futile  and 
visionary  hope  of  finding  gold  at  the  bottom!  In  this 
labor  he  excavated  nearly  one  hundred  and  seventy-five 
feet,  in  a  zig-zag  course,  going  only  forty  feet  below  the 
surface,  and  turning  round  in  a  circle,  and  finally  stop¬ 
ping  a  mile  or  more  from  the  bottom,  and  nearly  under 
the  place  where  he  began  many  years  ago.  During  all 
this  foolish  labor  this  medium  was  supported  by  the 
mediumists  who  visited  his  place  ;  but  death,  a  few 
years  ago,  put  an  end  to  the  “practical  ”  in  this  case, 
after  excavating  that  primitive  rock  in  vain  for  twenty 
years ! 

It  would  require  far  more  space  than  I  can  allow 
to  describe  all  the  romance  and  the  miracles  that  at¬ 
tracted  thousands  to  “Dungeon  Rock”  and  “High 
Rock,”  in  Lynn,  Mass.  At  the  latter  place  “  a  spirit 
babe ”  was  alleged  to  have  been  born,  who  was  to 
become  the  motive-power  of  a  machine  for  perpetual 
motion  that  J.  M.  Spear  had  invented!  Yes,  perpetual 
motion  !  Think  how  miraculous  all  this  would  have 
been  ;  and,  in  spite  of  the  failure,  from  the  throat  of 
J.  M.  Spear  there  went  up  a  shout  of  joy  when  the 
medium  declared  her  parturient  labors  were  over,  as 
this  lady  herself  assured  me ;  for  I  give  these  details  as 
I  received  them  from  Mrs.  Newton  herself.  And  well 
do  I  remember  the  joy  that  thrilled  through  the  ranks 
of  mediumship  when  that  “thing”  was  announced  to 
have  been  thus  born  of  her.  It  was  hailed  as  a  “second 
edition  of  a  supernatural  conception  and  birth.”  It 
was  proclaimed  as  the  inauguration  of  “a  new  motive- 
power,”  and  was  called  the  “  Physical  Saviour,”  the 


1 8  IDEOLOGY. 

“  New  Creation, ”  the  “  Philosopher’s  Stone,” 
“Heaven’s  best  gift  to  the  human  race”! 

“  Disgust  concealed 

Is  oft-times  proof  of  wisdom,  when  the  fault 
Is  obstinate,  and  the  cure  beyond  our  reach.” 


CHAPTER  II. 


MENTAL  EPIDEMICS. 


“  Let  him  go  on,  blest  star,  ’tis  meet  he  fall, 

Whose  blindfold  judgment  hath  no  guide  at  all.” 

When  a  number  of  minds  are  affected  in  a  similar 
manner,  and  the  affection  spreads  from  place  to  place, 
we  say  it  is  an  epidemic ,  because  the  mind  has  its 
characteristic  idiosyncrasies  and  susceptibilities,  similar¬ 
ly  as  the  body  has  ;  and  thus  we  designate  certain  forms 
of  disease  when  they  spread  and  extend  from  one 
family  to  another,  —  and  another,  and  another,  until  a 
whole  neighborhood  or  town  are  involved  in  the  excite¬ 
ment.  As  we  are  said  to  “take”  certain  forms  of 
disease  from  one  another,  so  we  take  mental  emotions. 
We  gape,  we  laugh,  and  weep  from  pure  sympathy,  or 
the  laws  of  sympathetic  imitation.  Such  is  the  nature 
of  the  human  mind.  Man  has  been  said  to  be  an  ani¬ 
mal  that  laughs  ;  and  how  often  we  laugh  merely  by 
seeing  others  laugh  !  We  weep,  we  become  musical  or 
sad,  merely  by  witnessing  these  states  of  mind  in 
others.  Observe,  then,  what  has  always  been  the  con¬ 
dition  of  the  masses  under  the  influence  of  any  given 
idea ,  and  especially  when  that  idea  is  represented  as 
coming  from  “God,”  or  from  some  other  world. 

In  preaching  the  dogmas  of  Christianity,  and  the 
declared  object  is  to  “get  up”  a  “revival,”  the  appeals 


20 


IDEOLOGY. 


are  made  to  fear  and  credulity;  and  these  organs,  heated 
beyond  due  bounds,  the  excitement  becomes  contagious , 
similarly  as  certain  forms  of  physical  disease  do.  Cer¬ 
tainly  the  human  mind  has  its  laws,  its  elements,  as  all 
forms  of  matter  have ;  and  it  is  the  legitimate  function 
of  science  to  ascertain  what  those  laws  are,  and  thus 
to  be  able  to  account  for  mental  phenomena  that  come 
within  the  purview  of  science. 

All  human  movements  based  on  mystical  ideas  are 
sensational,  unexplained  phenomena,  spread  by  mental 
contagion.  Any  event  that  excites  the  mind  with 
sudden  impulses  of  fear,  hope ,  or  credulity  produces  a 
contagious  diathesis,  or  tendency  to  hope  or  fear,  and 
in  this  way  one  mind  is  affected  by  seeing  another’s  in 
any  given  state.  In  modern  mediumship  the  idea  that 
heats  credulity  and  hope  is  the  assumption  that  this 
mediumship  is  “an  open  door  through  which  any  one 
may  ”  face  to  face  “converse  ”  with  any  one  of  his  dead 
relatives,  or  any  of  the  dead  of  past  ages.  The  con¬ 
stant  contact  with  minds  heated  with  this  idea  is  mental 
contagion. 

Observe  how  minds  become  infected  with  one  idea 
in  times  of  war  and  political  commotion.  In  commerce 
the  infection  is  in  the  idea  of  sudden  wealth  and  the 
love  of  money.  Enthusiasm  is  the  heat  which  melts 
the  heart  and  renders  the  mind  plastic ,  and  a  number 
of  minds  thus  heated  become  a  power,  and  act  in  con¬ 
cert.  When  the  idea  touches  patriotism,  the  contagion 
is  political.  When  it  touches  the  love  of  music,  mirth, 
or  mystery,  its  power  becomes  augmented  according  to 
the  disposition  of  each  mind.  When  it  gratifies  the 
hope  of  wealth,  health,  or  a  factitious  want  that  its  own 
false  dogmas  have  created,  enthusiasm  is  the  result, 


MENTAL  EPIDEMICS. 


21 


and  this  is  the  heat ,  the  mental  contagion  which  is 
purely  mental. 

The  smithy  in  order  to  cause  two  or  more  pieces  of 
metal  to  fuse,  has  to  get  up  a  “welding  heat and  so, 
to  unite  the  minds  of  large  masses  of  people,  an  idea 
must  seize  them  by  which  their  minds  are  rendered 
intensely  hot,  so  to  speak.  The  greater  the  idea,  or 
the  fire,  the  more  intense  the  heat,  and  thus  it  is  the 
largest  numbers  of  people  are  carried  away  into  ex¬ 
tremes  of  fanaticism  and  folly. 

In  the  late  war  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave¬ 
holders’  rebellion  in  America,  we  had  a  demonstration 
of  this  philosophy  of  mental  contagion  upon  a  magnif¬ 
icent  scale.  In  the  course  of  one  year  that  contagion 
had  infected  twenty  millions  of  people  or  more  ;  and,  if 
we  include  the  Southern  States,  we  can  see  how  it  is 
that  opposite  ideas ,  as  different  as  slavery  and  freedom, 
induce  precisely  the  same  kind  of  contagion  in  large 
masses  at  one  and  the  same  time,  thus  proving  that  the 
philosophy  of  nervous  induction  is  the  same  in  all 
minds.  And  to  realize  how  suddenly  and  simultaneously 
large  masses  of  people  may  be  similarly  “entranced,” 
“converted,”  or  enthused  with  the  same  ideas,  think 
of  the  millions  aroused  by  the  tocsin  of  war  in  1861, 
when  a  wave  of  patriotism  swept  over  these  United 
States  like  the  fire  that  sweeps  over  the  vast  prairies 
of  the  West,  carrying  all  before  it,  consuming  not 
merely  the  stubble,  but  the  hedges,  fences,  trees,  and 
even  licking  up  all  the  brooks,  ponds,  rivers,  and  lakes 
in  the  way  of  its  progress.  See  how,  with  one  swoop, 
it  carried  before  it  the  “  non-resistant  ”  religious  people, 

- — the  bishops,  priests,  and  ministers  of  religion,  whose 
creeds  forbid  war  and  enjoin  the  forgiveness  of  all 
injuries. 


22 


IDEOLOGY. 


In  this  manner  all  religious  chieftains  and  all  polit¬ 
ical  leaders  have  commenced  who  have  succeeded  in 
drawing  large  circles  around  them.  The  great  idea 
which  is  held  out  for  the  purpose  of  attracting  disciples 
and  partisans  so  completely  dazzles  and  overwhelms 
the  mind  in  the  excitement  of  the  moment,  that  multi¬ 
tudes  of  errors  flow  in  at  the  wide  door  that  has  thus 
been  opened.  Absorbed  in  the  contemplation  of  one 
great  truth,  or  an  idea  that  is  thought  to  be  true,  the 
mind  is  unprepared  for  criticism,  is  off  its  guard  in 
respect  to  lesser  matters.  The  presumption  is  that, 
if  Jesus,  Wesley,  or  Fox,  or  Swedenborg  were  the 
chosen  instruments  of  one  great  truth  so  immensely 
important,  they  must  have  been  the  favorites  of  Heaven 
in  such  a  sense  as  to  prevent  their  having  erred  in  any¬ 
thing.  That  is,  this  view  is  entertained  of  each  chief¬ 
tain  by  the  partisans  of  their  sect  respectively,  and  not 
by  votaries  of  the  chieftains  of  conflicting  and  rival 
leaders. 

We  may  thus  perceive  how  it  is  that  mental  con¬ 
tagion  becomes  a  factor  in  commercial  panics.  The 
hopes  and  fears  of  one  excite  the  hopes  and  fears  of 
another.  One  failure,  one  crime,  suggests  another  and 
another ;  and  both  the  pulpit  and  the  press,  by  harping 
upon  this  state  of  things,  only  tend  to  increase  it. 
What  the  pulpit  and  the  press  ought  to  do  is  to  explain 
the  7'ationale  of  mental  contagion  ;  but  this  the  pulpit 
will  not  do,  for,  when  the  mass  become  familiar  with 
that  philosophy,  there  will  be  no  more  “revivals,”  nor 
faith  in  Christian  dogmas. 

It  is  a  noteworthy  fact,  that  the  magnitude  in  the 
absurdity  of  the  false  idea  only  increases  the  enthusiasm 
by  which  it  is  propagated.  The  more  absurd  the  more 


MENTAL  EPIDEMICS. 


23 


faith ,  the  more  heat,  and  more  mental  contagion.  But 
it  is  when  the  infection  comes  from  an  idea  fabricated 
respecting  an  invisibility ,  or  in  respect  to  the  unknown 
and  the  unknowable,  mental  contagion  becomes  the 
most  virulent.  From  the  earliest  ages  men  have 
quarrelled  the  most  in  respect  to  such  ideas,  and  have 
become  the  most  enthusiastic  in  their  dissemination. 
Hence  we  find  that  mental  epidemics  are  never  so 
virulent  as  when  they  result  from  the  greatest  absurd¬ 
ities  in  respect  to  matters  of  which  nothing  whatever 
is  or  can  be  known. 

But  what  shall  be  said  of  that  form  of  fanaticism 
which  prevailed  in  the  south  of  Europe  during  the  fif¬ 
teenth  century,  known  as  the  Tarantula  mania,  when 
whole  companies  of  its  victims,  hand  in  hand,  like  the 
woman’s  raid  in  America  in  1874,  sang  and  danced 
themselves  voluntarily  into  the  sea  and  were  drowned  ? 

No  matter  what  form  the  contagion  may  assume, 
woman  becomes  its  ready  victim.  In  a  Papist  nunnery 
one  of  the  inmates  happened  to  be  seized  with  a  desire 
to  imitate  the  mewing  of  cats.  This  sound  was  re¬ 
peated  till,  becoming  a  habit,  it  spread  through  the 
convent,  and  at  stated  hours  the  whole  pious  sisterhood 
joined  together  in  mewing.  In  still  another  convent 
a  nun  bit  a  companion,  and  this  biting  mania  spread 
from  cloister  to  cloister,  from  country  to  country,  over 
the  whole  of  Europe. 

When  such  strong  delusions  thus  spread  among 
large  masses  of  people,  whole  communities  may  be  said 
to  have  become  insane,  and  it  is  only  where  the  masses 
are  ignorant  of  Nature’s  laws  that  such  absurdities 
can  find  a  foothold. 

A  recent  letter  from  the  head-quarters  of  Popery 


24 


IDEOLOGY. 


informs  us  that  pilgrims  to  Notre  Dame  of  Loretta  are 
very  numerous  this  year.  They  come  to  pray  to  be 
delivered  from  Italian  liberty,  and  to  obtain  the  return 
of  Fra ncesch ie lie,  or  Francis  II.,  son  of  the  saint.  These 
political  enthusiasts  kneel  at  the  outer  door  of  the 
church,  kiss  the  ground,  and  then  crawl  along  the  great 
nave  to  the  Holy  Chapel,  the  pavement  of  which  is 
worn  out  by  the  knees  of  the  faithful.  Some  lick  the 
ground  until  they  mark  their  passage  by  a  track  of 
blood  from  their  tongue  and  lips.  Such  a  scene  only 
shows  how  completely  the  minds  of  the  masses  may 
become  subdued  by  a  false  idea,  and  the  progress 
which  we  have  yet  to  make  ere  the  noblest  attributes 
of  manhood  are  emancipated  from  the  thraldom  of 
ignorance  and  superstition. 

Thus  the  contagion  extends  from  families  to  neigh¬ 
borhoods,  to  churches,  and  large  circles  of  communities. 
One  neighbor  influences  another,  and  when  he  stands 
high  and  is  looked  up  to  for  influence,  counsel,  and 
direction,  as  all  clergymen  are,  the  influence  is  so  much 
the  more  extended.  Hence,  we  see  that  Christian 
teacher  infected  with  most  of  his  flock  around  him. 
Some  of  his  followers  do  not  feel  much  love  for  the 
invisible,  but  they  do  feel  strong  love  and  respect  for 
their  pastor.  Perhaps  he  has  been  persecuted,  and 
they  love  him  on  this  account ;  or  perhaps  he  has  been 
the  means  of  their  “conversion,”  and  this  gives  him  a 
strong  claim  for  confidence  and  affection  ;  or,  it  may 
be,  he  has  attended  at  the  sick-bed  of  those  who  now 
follow  him  for  “  the  good  he  has  done.” 

See,  also,  the  political  chieftain  surrounded  by  his 
circle.  All  have  their  satellites.  All  must  attract, 
more  or  less,  by  the  inherent,  ever-present  laws  of  men- 


MENTAL  EPIDEMICS. 


25 


tal  and  social  sympathy.  Hence,  when  the  venerable 
patriarch  yields,  a  very  large  number  of  others  are  sure 
to  follow  ;  and,  so  many  associated  or  attracted  more  or 
less  with  one  common  object,  they  afford  society  and 
gratification  for  each  other.  In  this  manner  they  be¬ 
guile  and  deceive  themselves  ;  for  though  they  may 
never  fully  realize  the  object  of  their  pursuit,  yet  they 
may  afford  each  other  consolation,  and  by  their  “  pray¬ 
ers,”  their  “hymns  of  praise,”  and  other  methods  of 
religious  recreation,  they  divert  their  own  minds  from 
the  grief  of  disappointment,  of  which  they  might  other¬ 
wise  become  most  painfully  conscious.  In  this  manner 
we  know  the  regions  of  invisibility  have  been  peopled 
from  the  earliest  ages  of  the  world. 

To  describe  fully  any  of  the  myriad  forms  which  have 
been  found  in  this  region,  of  all  others  so  fruitful  of 
forms,  would  scarcely  comport  with  the  object  I  now 
have  in  view.  Nor  is  it  necessary,  perhaps,  if  we  exam¬ 
ine  the  portrait  which  has  been  drawn  by  “  infallible 
inspiration  ”  of  one  whom  we  are  assured  reigns  there 
supreme. 

Some  six  thousand  years  ago  he  appeared  in  the 
form  of  a  serpent,  or,  as  others  say,  of  a  baboon  or  mon¬ 
key  ;  but  all  are  agreed  that  he  was  (formerly,  at  least) 
a  most  ugly  and  hateful-looking  devil.  He  even  had 
a  forked  tail  that  he  whisked  about  as  he  walked ;  one 
of  his  feet  (supposing  he  had  two)  was  cloven  ;  and  his 
head  was  ornamented  with  a  pair  of  appropriate  horns. 
His  eyes,  ugh  !  were  as  large  as  common  saucers,  and 
such  a  mouth !  Ancient  copies  of  the  Bible  contain 
pictures  of  him,  in  which  his  protruding  tongue  and 
teeth  look  frightful  enough.  Corresponding  with  his 
external  and  horrible  appearance  is  the  account  that 


26 


IDEOLOGY. 


has  been  given  us  of  his  internals,  or  disposition.  He 
possessed  great  power,  and  is  said  to  have  been  the 
prince  and  power  of  the  air,  so  that  he  could  raise 
hurricanes,  and  even  cause  earthquakes.  He  afflicted 
the  patriarch  Job  with  severe  boils,  and  well  nigh  pro¬ 
voked  him  to  curse  God  and  die.  He  was  a  most  suc¬ 
cessful  competitor  of  the  “  Infinite  God,”  and  this  same 
Devil  finally  succeeds  in  securing  by  far  the  biggest 
half  of  the  human  race  in  the  sulphurous  flames  of  an 
eternal  hell.  Math.  vii.  13,  14;  Rev.  xiv.  11. 


CHAPTER  III. 


THE  SOUTH  SEA  BUBBLE. 


Now  buried  in  the  gulf  below, 

Now  mounted  up  to  heaven  again, 
They  reel  and  stagger  to  and  fro, 

At  their  wits’  end,  like  drunken  men. 


It  is  now  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  years  since  this 
term  (the  “South*  Sea  Bubble”)  came  into  use  to 
signify  a  mania  which  prevailed  in  England.  It  was 
originated  by  the  celebrated  Harley,  Earl  of  Oxford, 
with  the  hope  of  restoring  public  credit,  which  was 
then  at  a  very  low  ebb,  the  floating  debt  amounting  to 
some  fifty  millions  of  dollars.  A  company  of  merchants 
took  the  debt  upon  themselves,  and  Government  of¬ 
fered  to  loan  them,  for  a  certain  period,  the  interest  of 
six  per  cent.  To  provide  for  this  interest,  not  amount¬ 
ing  to  above  $ 600,000  per  annum,  the  duty  upon  certain 
articles  was  rendered  permanent,  and  the  monopoly  of 
the  trade  to  the  South  Sea  Islands  was  granted ;  and 
the  company,  being  incorporated  by  Act  of  Parliament, 
assumed  the  title  by  which  it  was  ever  afterwards 
known.  Harley  took  great  credit  to  himself  for  his 
share  in  this  transaction,  and  the  scheme  ever  after¬ 
wards  took  the  name  of  “The  Earl  of  Oxford’s  Master¬ 
piece.” 


27 


2  8 


IDEOLOGY. 


At  this  period,  the  most  visionary  ideas  had  been 
formed  by  the  company,  and  by  the  public  generally, 
as  .to  the  immense  riches  of  the  eastern  coast  of  South 
America.  Everybody  had  heard  the  marvellous  stories 
told  of  the  gold  and  silver  mines  of  Peru  and  Mexico  ; 
nobody  doubted  but  that  these  mines  were  inexhaust¬ 
ible  ;  all  supposed  that  it  was  only  necessary  to  send 
the  manufacturers  to  that  far-famed  coast  to  be  repaid 
a  thousand-fold  in  gold  ingots  by  the  natives. 

For  the  space  of  six  years  this  idea  of  immense  riches 
was  kept  before  the  minds  of  the  English  people  by 
the  schemes  adopted  by  Government  for  securing  the 
success  of  the  South  Sea  Company.  Under  the  auspices 
of  the  national  Government  the  company  could  but 
flourish  for  a  time,  although  its  trade  with  South 
America  produced  very  little  or  no  real  augmentation 
of  its  revenues.  Their  stock  was  in  constant  demand, 
and,  thus  buoyed  up  with  success,  the  company  now 
determined  to  extend  their  operations.  Visions  of  un¬ 
bounded  riches  floated  before  the  excited  hopes  of  the 
people.  The  Mississippi  scheme,  which  had  so  capti¬ 
vated  the  French  people’s  heads,  already  prepared  the 
English  for  similar  extremes  of  fanaticism  and  folly. 
Nor  did  Law’s  failure  at  all  deter  them.  Wise  in  their 
own  conceit,  they  believed,  of  course,  that  John  Bull 
could  avoid  his  mistake,  and  thus  carry  out  their  scheme 
of  individual  and  national  wealth,  without  the  possibility 
of  failure.  The  part  taken  by  the  Government,  the 
bank  of  England,  and  the  aristocracy,  for  carrying  out 
this  scheme,  only  served  to  enlist  the  confidence  of  the 
people.  But  now  and  then  was  found  one  of  the  nobil¬ 
ity  whose  sagacity  could  not  be  blinded  by  the  specious 
plans  of  the  South  Sea  Company.  Sir  Robert  Walpole 


THE  SOUTH  SEA  BUBBLE. 


29 


raised  his  voice  against  it,  uttering  his  warnings  as  with 
prophetic  vision,  against  the  gigantic  evils  which  the 
plan  was  sure  to  bring  upon  the  nation. 

And  thus  it  has  been  found  in  all  popular  excitements, 
in  which  the  multitudes  act  as  if  they  had  lost  their 
senses.  So  in  politics,  in  sectarian  revivals,  in  medium- 
ism,  and  in  witchcraft.  While  the  masses  seem  wholly 
abandoned  to  the  utmost  extremes  of  fanaticism,  we 
find  a  great  intellect  which  braves  the  storm  as  the 
adamantine  rock  does  the  waves  of  the  ocean  ;  and, 
like  the  resistance  of  the  granite  mountain  to  the 
swelling  tides,  so  was  the  eloquence  of  Walpole  against 
the  delusion  which  had  captivated  the  entire  mind 
of  the  British  nation.  He  was  considered  as  a  false 
prophet,  or  an  “old  fogy,”  predicting  evils  which  would 
never  come  to  pass.  And  popular  though  indeed  he 
had  been  as  a  speaker  in  the  House  of  Commons,  the 
benches  became  deserted  whenever  he  attempted  to 
open  his  lips  upon  matters  connected  with  the  South 
Sea  question. 

The  company’s  office  was  located  in  Exchange  Alley, 
London,  which  now  (1720)  became  alive  with  excite¬ 
ment.  The  stock  rose  in  one  day  from  a  hundred  and 
thirty  to  three  hundred  ;  and  so  it  continued  to  advance 
with  astonishing  rapidity,  while  Parliament  were  dis¬ 
cussing  the  measures  of  the  scheme.  The  speculating 
mania  had  seized  upon  the  Government  no  less  than 
upon  the  people.  Indeed,  it  seemed  as  if  the  whole 
nation  had  turned  stock-jobbers.  Exchange  Alley  was 
blocked  up  from  day  to  day  with  the  speculating  crowds. 
Everybody  came  there  to  purchase  stock  in  the  South 
Sea  Company : 


30 


IDEOLOGY. 


“  Then  stars  and  garters  did  appear 
Among  the  meaner  rabble, 

To  buy  and  sell,  to  see  and  hear 
The  Jews  and  Gentiles  squabble. 

The  greatest  ladies  thither  came, 

And  plied  in  chariots  daily,  v 

Or  pawned  their  jewels  for  a  sum 
To  venture  in  the  Alley.” 

Such  are  the  sympathetic ,  imitative  susceptibilities  of 
the  human  mind  by  which  people  follow  one  another 
into  extremes  of  folly.  Similar  laws  govern  in  the 
animal  world.  If  you  extend  a  pole  across  a  gap  in  the 
wall  through  which  a  frightened  flock  of  sheep  attempt 
to  pass,  the  leader  will  leap  over  the  stick ;  and  if  then 
the  pole  be  withdrawn,  every  one  of  the  sheep  will  leap 
precisely  as  the  leader  did,  as  if  the  stick  had  not  been 
removed.  The  manner  in  which  animals  rush  over 
precipices,  one  following  where  the  other  goes,  when 
all  are  driven  by  the  impulse  of  fright,  illustrates  these 
traits  of  human  nature.  When  large  masses  of  mind 
are  excited  and  carried  away  from  their  true  balance, 
on  one  subject,  they  are  incapacitated  from  judging  on 
other  subjects.  Crazy  with  the  lust  of  gold,  the  masses 
are  ever  ready  for  embracing  any  and  all  extremes 
which  promise  the  sudden  acquisition  of  wealth  ;  and 
hence  it  was  that  other  schemes  were  now  concocted 
for  making  money,  —  many  of  them  so  utterly  silly  and 
futile  that  one  can  now  scarcely  believe  the  record  that 
has  come  down  to  us  of  transactions  so  perfectly  wild 
and  extravagant. 

But,  once  fairly  started  upon  the  wild-goose  chase,  it 
is  impossible  to  tell  when  or  where  the  herd  will  stop 
for  breath.  Innumerable  joint-stock  companies  started 


THE  SOUTH  SEA  BUBBLE. 


31 


up  daily  ;  some  of  them  lasted  only  for  a  week,  and  then 
were  heard  of  no  more.  Hence  it  was,  they  received  the 
name  of  bubbles ,  —  the  most  appropriate,  perhaps,  that 
could  have  been  devised.  Every  evening  produced  some 
new  scheme,  and  others  followed  in  the  morning  until 
there  were  a  hundred  of  these  projects,  each  more 
deceptive  and  extravagant  than  the  other.  They  were 
set  on  foot,  says  a  writer  of  those  times,  and  promoted 
by  crafty  knaves,  then  pursued  by  multitudes  of  covet¬ 
ous  fools,  and  at  last  appeared  to  be,  in  effect,  what 
their  vulgar  appellation  denoted  them  to  be,  cheats, 
bubbles,  and  nothing  else.  One  and  a-half  millions 
sterling  were  thus  lost  and  won  by  these  disgraceful 
speculations,  to  the  impoverishment  of  many  a  fool  and 
the  enriching  of  many  a  rogue. 

Most  of  these  schemes  were  got  up  merely  for  the 
purpose  of  raising  the  shares  of  stock  in  the  market, 
and,  embracing  the  first  chance,  the  projectors  would 
fall  out,  and  the  next  morning  the  scheme  was  at  an 
end.  To  show  that  these  statements  are  not  without 
foundation,  the  following  list  of  these  schemes  is  given 
for  which  petitions  were  made  to  Government  for  an 
act  of  incorporation.  There  were  a  hundred  or  more ; 
but  the  following  will  answer  as  specimens  :  — 

“For  making  muslin.” 

“  For  furnishing  funerals,  to  any  part  of  Great  Brit- 

•  >} 
am. 

“  For  improving  the  art  of  making  soap.” 

“For  a  wheel  for  perpetual  motion.  Capital,  one 
million  pounds  sterling.” 

“For  insuring  and  increasing  children’s  fortunes.” 

“  For  importing  walnut  trees  from  Virginia.  Capital, 
two  millions.” 


32 


IDEOLOGY. 


“For  paying  pensions  to  widows  and  others,  at  a 
small  discount.  Capital,  two  millions/’ 

“For  making  clap-boards  out  of  sawdust.” 

“For  securing  to  all  masters  and  mistresses  the 
losses  they  may  sustain  by  servants.  Capital,  three 
millions.” 

“For  erecting  houses,  for  taking  in  and  maintaining 
illegitimate  children.  Capital,  two  millions.” 

“For  insuring  from  thefts  and  robbers.” 

“For  extracting  silver  from  lead.” 

“For  the  transmutation  of  quicksilver  into  a  mal¬ 
leable,  fine  metal.” 

“For  carrying  on  an  undertaking  of  great  advantage, 
but  nobody  to  know  what  it  is.” 

And  now  we  are  told  that  this  last-named  and  pre¬ 
posterous  project  put  a  fortune  into  the  pocket  of  the 
rascal  who  got  it  up.  He  announced  in  his  prospectus 
that  he  only  needed  the  moderate  sum  of  half  a  million 
pounds  sterling,  in  five  thousand  shares  of  one  hundred 
pounds  each  ;  and  a  deposit  of  two  pounds  on  each 
share,  each  subscriber  to  be  entitled  to  one  hundred 
pounds  per  annum  per  share.  How  this  enormous 
profit  was  to  be  obtained  he,  of  course,  did  not  con¬ 
descend  to  enlighten  the  noodles  who  became  his 
patrons  ;  but  he  promised  that  when,  in  the  course  of 
a  month,  he  called  for  the  balance  on  each  share,  this 
information  should  be  forthcoming.  The  morning  after 
the  announcement  of  this  scheme  “  of  great  advantage, 
but  nobody  to  know  what  it  is,”  he  opened  his  office  in 
Cornhill,  where  he  did  business  until  three  o’clock. 
Having  in  the  space  of  a  few  hours  received  two  thou¬ 
sand  pounds,  the  amount  deposited  on  one  thousand 
shares,  he  shut  up  shop  and  cleared  to  parts  unknown. 


THE  SOUTH  SEA  BUBBLE. 


33 


Another  scheme,  equally  characteristic  of  the  times, 
originated  doubtless  by  the  sporting  clergy,  was  “  For 
encouraging  the  breed  of  horses  in  England,  and  im¬ 
proving  of  church  and  glebe  lands,  and  repairing  and 
rebuilding  of  parsonages  and  vicarage  houses.”  The 
shares  in  this  clerical  bubble  were  all  disposed  of  as  a 
matter  of  course.  The  pious  flock  could  but  follow  in 
the  footsteps  of  its  shepherds.  For  card-playing,  horse¬ 
racing,  and  hunting,  or  speculating  in  fictitious  stock, 
the  masses  had  the  example  of  their  religious  teachers 
which  they  have  but  too  faithfully  followed,  in  all  coun¬ 
tries  and  from  the  earliest  ages  of  the  world.  The 
conduct  of  the  clergy  in  the  South  Sea  Bubble  only 
proves  what  the  people  have  been  quite  too  slow  in 
admitting,  that  the  ministers  of  sectarianism  are  human 
beings,  and  of  like  passions  with  other  men.  As  a  class, 
there  never  was  a  time  when  they  did  not  lust  for  gold, 
and,  when  opportunities  have  offered,  we  find  they  have 
gambled  for  its  acquisition  precisely  like  other  folks. 

When  masses  of  people  become  crazy  with  the  hope 
of  sudden  riches,  they  yield  themselves  an  easy  prey  to 
all  kinds  of  knavery.  Another  of  these  frauds  was 
called  the  “  Globe  Permits ;  these  square  pieces  of 
paper  like  playing  cards,  on  which  a  seal  was  impressed 
in  wax,  bearing  the  sign  of  the  Globe  Tavern,  which 
was  located  near  the  Alley.  It  had  also  the  words, 
“Sail  Cloth  Permit”  inscribed,  and  this  entitled  the 
lucky  holder  to  the  right  to  subscribe,  at  some  future 
time,  to  a  proposed  new  “Sail  Cloth  Manufactory.” 
These  “  permits  ”  sold  for  $440  each  in  the  Alley.  The 
concern,  like  the  others,  proved  a  total  swindle. 

In  these  speculations  all  classes  were  engaged,  in¬ 
cluding  religious  people  and  persons  of  the  highest 


34 


IDEOLOGY. 


distinction  ;  the  men  going  to  coffee-houses  and  taverns, 
and  the  ladies  meeting  their  brokers  at  the  shops  of  milli¬ 
nery  and  dry-goods  merchants.  Purchases  were  made 
for  the  purpose  of  speculation,  when  there  was  no 
pretended  prospect  of  realizing  any  profits  from  the 
feasibility  of  the  scheme.  It  was  enough  for  those  who 
had  the  fever  upon  them  to  get  hold  of  a  few  shares, 
which  they  could  the  next  moment  sell  to  the  credulous. 
The  confusion  of  the  crowd  was  so  great  in  the  Alley 
at  times  that  shares  in  the  same  bubble  were  known 
to  have  been  sold,  at  the  same  instant,  ten  per  cent, 
higher  at  one  end  of  the  Alley  than  at  the  other.  It 
was  this  state  of  things  which  drew  from  Swift  the 
following  lines  : — 

n  Subscribers  here  by  thousands  float, 

And  jostle  one  another  down, 

Each  paddling  in  his  leaky  boat ; 

And  here  they  fish  for  gold,  and  drown. 

Meanwhile  secure  on  Garroway  cliffs, 

A  savage  race,  by  shipwrecks  fed, 

■ 

Lie  waiting  for  the  foundering  skiffs, 

And  strip  the  bodies  of  the  dead.” 

Any  quantity  of  caricatures  were  published,  holding 
up  the  stupendous  bubble  to  ridicule  and  contempt,  as 
the  people  began  to  come,  “  slowly  and  one  by  one,”  to 
their  senses  again.  The  stock  had  been  up  to  one 
thousand  per  cent.,  at  which  it  was  quoted  in  August, 
1720.  It  was  then  perhaps  at  its  zenith;  for,  from 
this  period,  it  began  to  shake  and  show  signs  of  rapid 
decline.  One  after  another  the  principal  stockholders 
now  began  to  sell  out.  To  prevent,  if  possible,  the 
utter  extinction  of  public  confidence,  the  directors  of 
the  South  Sea  Company  called  a  general  meeting  of 


THE  SOUTH  SEA  BUBBLE. 


35 


the  corporation.  By  nine  o’clock  in  the  morning  of  the 
same  day  appointed  for  the  meeting,  the  place  was 
filled  to  suffocation.  The  streets  in  the  vicinity  were 
filled  from  block  to  block  so  as  to  be  impassable.  The 
greatest  excitement  prevailed.  But  all  the  directors, 
dukes,  lords,  and  other  dignitaries  made  at  this  meet¬ 
ing  failed  to  inspire  confidence  in  this  sinking  scheme. 
Numerous  other  meetings  were  held  and  plans  laid,  in 
vain.  The  ministers  became  alarmed.  The  directors 
and  leading  men  in  this  swindle  could  not  safely  appear 
in  the  streets.  Riot  and  disorder  were  threatened  in 
all  quarters.  The  manners  of  the  people  became  sen¬ 
sibly  altered  and  corrupted.  Deeds  of  infamy  became 
common.  The  nation  itself  had  become  a  band  of  des¬ 
perate  gamblers,  and  the  consequences  were  now 
apparent  in  the  calamity  they  had  to  suffer.  Petitions 
were  sent  up  to  Parliament  from  various  quarters, 
praying  for  speedy  justice  in  the  punishment  of  the 
villainous  speculators  who  had  caused  the  general 
distress.  And  to  such  an  extreme  was  this  desire  for 
vengeance  carried,  that  even  the  few  more  moderate 
men,  who  had  hesitated  about  going  to  such  extremes 
in  the  punishment  of  the  guilty,  were  accused  with 
being  accomplices,  and  exposed  to  repeated  insults  from 
the  rabble. 

One  by  one  the  case  of  each  director  was  examined 
and  passed  upon  by  the  Government,  until  a  sum 
amounting  to  some  nine  millions  of  dollars  had  been 
confiscated  from  their  estates,  in  repairing  the  mischief 
they  had  done.  The  nation  had  no  sooner  awakened 
from  its  dream  than  it  swung  into  extremes  of  justice, 
which  the  equity  of  the  present  age  must  condemn. 
Extremes  in  fanaticism,  in  religion,  in  politics,  in  com- 


3^ 


IDEOLOGY. 


merce,  never  go  alone  ;  one  is  followed  by  another,  for 
such  are  the  inherent  and  constitutional  tendencies  of 
the  human  mind:  But  it  was  a  long  time  before  the 
public  credit  in  England  was  fully  restored.  The 
people,  the  entire  nation,  had  suffered  too  long,  and 
there  was  a  lesson  to  be  learned  from  such  follies,  which 
has  not  to  this  day  been  so  thoroughly  studied  as  the 
importance  of  the  subject  has  seemed  to  demand. 

Having  essayed  something  like  justice  to  those  huge 
epidemics  which  prevailed  in  France  and  England,  more 
than  a  century  and  a  half  since,  it  would  perhaps  be 
interesting  to  notice  other  forms  which  fanaticism  has 
assumed  in  Europe,  before  I  come  to  notice  what  has 
occurred  in  our  own  country. 

There  was  the  tulip  mania,  which  raged  among  the 
Dutch  upwards  of  two  hundred  and  thirty  years  ago  ; 
and  so  great  was  the  desire  to  get  this  plant,  that  ordi¬ 
nary  business  was  neglected,  and  all  classes  of  the 
people  engaged  in  the  tulip  trade.  As  this  epidemic 
increased,  prices  rose  far  beyond  what  we  have  yet 
witnessed  in  this  country  in  gold  and  articles  of  com¬ 
merce.  The  tulip  roots  were  sold  by  small  weight  less 
than  a  grain,  and  fortunes  of  one  hundred  thousand 
florins  were  invested  in  a  few  worthless  plants.  And 
for  the  space  of  thirty  years  or  more  the  tulip omania 
produced,  not  among  the  Germans  alone,  but  also 
among  the  English,  all  those  silly  extremes  of  passion, 
folly,  and  extravagance  which,  as  we  have  seen,  char¬ 
acterized  the  “Mississippi  scheme”  and  the  “South 
Sea  bubble.” 

To  us  of  the  present  age,  it  may  seem  strange  indeed 
that  full-grown  men  and  women  could  ever  have  been 
so  foolish  as  these  epidemics  would  seem  to  indicate. 


THE  SOUTH  SEA  BUBBLE. 


37 


Nevertheless,  we  may  perhaps  find,  after  all,  that  we 
are  generally  scarcely  more  free  from  mental  epidemics 
than  the  French,  English,  and  Dutch  were  two  hun¬ 
dred  and  sixty-five  years  ago. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  SCHEME. 


“  Some  in  clandestine  companies  combine, 

Erect  new  stocks  to  trade  beyond  the  line, 
With  air  and  empty  names  beguile  the  town, 
And  raise  new  credits  first,  then  cry  ’em  down 
Divide  the  empty  nothing  into  shares, 

And  set  the  crowd  together  by  the  ears.” 


History  is  philosophy  speaking  by  example  ;  and 
that  part  of  history  which  records  the  extremes,  the 
mental  epidemics,  which  have  prevailed  in  different 
ages  of  the  world,  are  more  necessary,  perhaps,  in 
studying  the  philosophy  of  the  human  mind,  than  those 
portions  which  describe  the  rise  and  fall  of  empires. 
The  history  of  the  money  -mania  among  the  English, 
the  French,  and  the  Americans,  presents  one  of  the 
most  instructive  pictures  of  human  nature.  In  this 
history  we  find  so  much  of  credulity,  hope,  fear,  and 
the  love  of  gain,  —  so  much  of  gullibility,  running  after 
golden  visions,  —  so  much  of  human  folly,  plunging 
whole  nations  into  the  quagmire  of  pecuniary  ruin,  — 
so  much  of  the  extreme,  in  hope  of  sudden  wealth,  fol¬ 
lowed  by  extremes  of  bitter  disappointment,  when  the 
wealthy  thousand  of  yesterday  become  the  poverty- 
smitten  and  wretched  beggars  of  to-day. 

This  Mississippi  scheme  was  originated  by  John  Law, 
a  Scotchman,  among  the  French,  in  1717.  Law  had 

38 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  SCHEME. 


39 


fled  from  his  own  country  to  avoid  the  gallows,  and, 
taking  up  his  abode  in  Paris,  at  a  time  when  the  nation 
was  bankrupt,  he  found  no  difficulty  in  attracting  the 
attention  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  then  Regent  of 
France,  together  with  the  principal  personages  con¬ 
cerned  in  the  Government,  to  his  financial  schemes  for 
relieving  the  nation  from  debt.  Its  finances  at  that 
period  were  in  a  state  of  the  utmost  disorder.  Distress 
and  ruin  everywhere  stared  the  people  in  the  face,  and 
after  trying  various  plans  in  vain  for  relief,  they  were 
in  a  fit  condition  for  accepting  the  visionary  schemes 
which  Law’s  fruitful  imagination  had  concocted  for 
them.  His  theory  was,  that  a  metallic  currency,  un¬ 
aided  by  paper  money,  was  wholly  inadequate  to  the 
necessities  of  a  commercial  country ;  and  the  Regent, 
captivated  by  the  success  which  had  attended  one  of 
Law’s  banks,  adopted  this  theory,  and,  indeed,  he  im¬ 
proved  upon  it  so  far  as  to  act  upon  the  idea  that  paper 
money,  which  could  so  much  aid  a  metallic  currency, 
might,  upon  the  same  principle,  wholly  supersede  it  ! 
And,  accordingly,  Law  now  proposed  to  establish  a 
company,  to  which  the  Government  should  secure  the 
exclusive  privilege  of  trading  on  the  Great  Mississippi 
River  in  Louisiana.  That  country  was  believed  to 
abound  in  the  precious  metals,  and  the  Company,  sup¬ 
ported  by  the  profits  of  its  exclusive  trade,  were  to  have 
the  sole  right  of  coining  money  and  of  framing  taxes. 

The  capital  was  divided  into  two  hundred  thousand 
shares  of  five  hundred  livres  each,  the  whole  of  which 
might  be  paid  in  Government  bills  at  their  nominal 
value,  although  worth  only  one  hundred  and  sixty  livres 
in  the  market.  In  his  previous  banking  speculations, 
Law  had  procured  the  confidence  of  the  people  by  pro- 


40 


IDEOLOGY. 


claiming  that  a  banker  deserved  death  who  should  make 
issues  of  paper  without  the  necessary  funds  in  bond 
and  bullion  to  provide  for  them  ;  and  his  bank  had 
given  so  much  relief  that  the  people  were  ready  to  be 
gulled  by  whatever  extravagant  promises  he  might 
make  to  them. 

His  bank  became  a  public  institution,  and  the  Regent, 
who  could  refuse  nothing  requested  by  the  Scotchman, 
now  caused  a  fabrication  of  notes  to  the  amount  of  one 
million  of  livres,  and  they  now  commenced  that  wild 
and  extravagant  career  in  financiering  which  resulted 
in  rank  fanaticism,  and  even  madness,  as  real  as  any 
that  ever  confined  the  maniac  within  the  walls  of  a 
madhouse.  In  1719  an  edict  was  passed  granting  to 
the  Mississippi  Company  the  exclusive  right  of  trading 
to  the  East  Indies,  China,  and  the  South  Seas ;  upon 
which  they  took  the  name  of  “  Company  of  the  Indies,” 
and  created  fifty  thousand  new  shares.  Law  now  held 
out  the  promise  of  a  yearly  dividend  of  two  hundred 
livres,  upon  each  share  of  five  hundred,  which,  as  these 
shares  were  paid  for  in  depreciated  money,  at  its  nomi¬ 
nal  value,  made  about  one  hundred  per  cent,  profit. 

These  magnificent  prospects  of  golden  harvests  cap¬ 
tivated  the  people,  and  the  enthusiasm  which  had  for 
a  year  or  more  been  rising,  was  now  ready  to  carry 
them  into  extremes  of  egregious  folly.  Not  less  than 
three  thousand  applications  were  made  at  Law’s  house 
immediately  for  these  fifty  new  shares.  The  street 
was  thronged  day  and  night  by  the  eager  applicants ; 
but,  as  it  was  impossible  to  gratify  them  all,  it  was  some 
weeks  before  a  list  of  the  fortunate  purchasers  could 
be  made  out.  During  the  time,  the  public  impatience 
rose  to  a  pitch  of  frenzy.  Every  day,  dukes,  marquises, 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  SCHEME. 


41 


counts,  with  their  duchesses,  marchionesses,  and  count¬ 
esses,  waited  in  the  streets  in  order  to  be  served,  or  to 
know  the  results  of  the  sales.  At  last,  the  dignitaries, 
in  order  to  avoid  the  plebeian  crowds  which,  in  un¬ 
counted  thousands,  blocked  up  the  thoroughfare  from 
street  to  street,  engaged  apartments  in  the  adjoining 
houses,  that  they  might  be  constantly  near  the  temple 
whence  this  new  Plutus  from  Scotia  was  diffusing  his 
kingdom  of  wealth. 

The  old  shares  in  this  stock  increased  every  day,  and 
we  are  assured  that  the  fresh  applicants,  induced  by  the 
golden  dreams  of  the  whole  nation,  now  became  so 
numerous  that  it  was  deemed  advisable  to  create  no 
less  than  three  hundred  thousand  new  shares,  at  five 
thousand  livres  each,  in  order  that  the  Government  of 
France  might  take  advantage  of  this  state  of  enthusiasm 
for  raising  funds  sufficient  to  pay  off  the  national  debt. 
The  amount  required  was  fifteen  hundred  millions  of 
livres  ;  and  such  was  the  gullibility  of  the  people  that 
this  enormous  sum  was  forthwith  subscribed,  and  in¬ 
deed  three  times  the  sum  would  have  been  willingly 
paid  had  it  been  necessary  and  called  for  by  the  Gov¬ 
ernment. 

The  Scotchman  was  now  approaching  the  zenith  of 
his  glory,  and  the  infatuated  people  were  reaching  that 
extreme  of  fanaticism  beyond  which  its  victims  sooner 
or  later  come  to  their  senses.  This  ungovernable  de¬ 
sire  for  sudden  wealth  filled  all  classes  with  visions  of 
unbounded  riches.  The  aristocracy,  with  but  two  ex¬ 
ceptions,  were  foremost  in  the  sale  and  the  purchase  of 
stock.  People  of  both  sexes  and  of  all  conditions  — 
farmers,  mechanics,  clergymen,  and  servants — engaged 
in  this  speculation,  and  bought  and  sold  stock  in  those 


42 


IDEOLOGY. 


imaginary  banks  of  gold  to  be  found  somewhere  in  the 
far-off  land  of  America. 

The  street  in  which  Law  lived  being  narrow,  the 
crowds  which  thronged  it  were  constantly  subject  to 
accidents,  as  a  matter  of  course  And  yet,  tattered 
garments  and  broken  limbs,  or  even  the  danger  of  suf¬ 
focation,  had  no  effect  in  cooling  the  fanaticism  of  the 
multitude.  The  houses  near  by,  worth  in  former  times 
a  yearly  rent  of  one  thousand  livres,  now  rented  for 
sixteen  thousand.  A  cobbler  let  his  shop  for  two 
hundred  livres  a  day,  to  the  brokers,  who  occupied  it 
for  the  purchase  and  sale  of  stock ;  and  a  story  is  told 
of  an  old  hunchback  man  who  became  rich  from  the 
pieces  of  money  given  him  by  the  eager  speculators, 
who  made  a  writing-table  of  his  spine,  on  which  the 
certificates  were  filled  out  in  the  streets !  The  great 
concourse  of  speculators  attracted  multitudes  of  spec¬ 
tators,  and  among  the  whole  were  found  any  number 
of  thieves  and  blacklegs  ;  and  hence  at  night  it  was 
necessary  to  send  a  troop  of  soldiers  to  keep  the  peace, 
and  prevent  the  riots  that  occurred. 

Finding  his  place  too  strait  for  the  vast  crowds, 
which  increased  upon  him  from  day  to  day,  Law  now 
obtained  new  and  more  commodious  quarters  in  the 
Place  Vendome,  and  we  are  told  that  spacious  square 
soon  became  as  thronged  as  the  other  place  had  been. 
From  morning  till  night  it  presented  the  appearance  of 
a  fair  or  market  day ;  booths  and  tents  were  erected 
for  refreshments  and  the  transaction  of  business,  and 
where,  also,  the  gamblers  found  unusual  facilities  for 
their  tricks.  The  Boulevards  and  public  gardens  were 
forsaken,  and  no  places  of  recreation  were  now  so  at¬ 
tractive  as  the  Place  Vendome,  where  the  fashionable, 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  SCHEME. 


43 


the  idle,  and  the  vicious  assembled  from  day  to  day. 
Indeed,  the  noise  from  this  huge  mass  was  so  great 
that  the  Chancellor,  whose  court  was  held  in  the  square, 
complained  to  the  Regent  that  it  was  impossible  for 
them  to  hear  their  advocates.  Law,  when  made  ac¬ 
quainted  with  the  complaint,  signified  his  willingness 
to  remove  into  the  Hotel  de  Sessions,  which  had  a  large 
garden  of  several  acres  in  the  rear,  —  a  place  which  he 
purchased,  and  which  proved  to  him  a  source  of  enor¬ 
mous  profit. 

The  Government  now  passed  an  edict  forbidding  the 
purchase  or  sale  of  stock  in  any  other  place  except  the 
gardens  of  the  Hotel  de  Sessions,  where  some  five 
hundred  tents  had  been  erected  for  the  convenience  of 
the  stock-jobbers.  Each  tent  was  let  for  five  hundred 
livres  per  month,  and  from  this  revenue  alone  Law 
received  upwards  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  per  annum. 
The  party-colored  banners  which  floated  from  these 
tents,  the  music,  the  constant  rush  of  people,  the  busy 
hum  of  voices,  all  combined  to  give  to  the  scene  the  air 
of  enchantment. 

Such  is  the  state  of  things  when  an  entire  nation 
becomes  infatuated  with  the  lust  of  gold.  But  in  the 
midst  of  so  much  fanaticism,  we  are  told  that  two  or 
three  sober  and  thoughtful  men  in  Paris  raised  the 
voice  of  caution  against  what  they  denominated  the 
“disgusting  avarice,”  although  they  did  so  at  great 
peril  to  themselves.  The  herd  had  gone  crazy,  and  it 
was  not  safe  for  one  to  differ  from  the  crowd  intoxicated 
with  the  love  of  gain. 

But  this  was  precisely  the  state  of  things  most  favor¬ 
able  for  the  advancement  of  John  Law.  He  was  now 
looked  up  to  as  the  most  important  personage  of  the 


44 


IDEOLOGY. 


Government.  Priests  and  bishops,  judges,  peers,  officers 
of  the  army  and  navy,  and  ladies  of  title  and  fashion, 
were  found  waiting  at  the  Hotel  de  Sessions  for  stock 
in  the  India  Company.  The  numbers  which  crowded 
his  ante-rooms  were  so  great  that  it  was  impossible  for 
Law  to  see  one  in  a  dozen  of  them.  Dignitaries  in 
church  and  state,  who  would  have  felt  outraged  had  they 
been  compelled  to  wait  for  half  an  hour  by  the  Regent 
and  King,  were  now  patient  in  waiting  all  day  to  see 
Monsieur  Law.  His  servants  also  reaped  a  golden  har¬ 
vest  in  the  enormous  fees  paid  them  to  secure  the  mere 
announcement  of  names  to  their  master. 

Ladies  of  rank  returned  from  day  to  day  for  a  fort¬ 
night,  in  order  to  get  an  audience  with  the  author  of 
the  Mississippi  Scheme.  Sometimes  when  he  accepted 
an  invitation  he  would  be  overwhelmed  with  ladies,  all 
begging  to  have  their  names  put  down  as  shareholders 
in  the  new  stock,  and  we  are  told  of  ludicrous  strata¬ 
gems  which  they  employed  in  order  to  have  the  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  speaking  to  him.  One  lady  instructed  her 
coachman  to  drive  in  the  vicinity  of  Law’s  place  from 
day  to  day,  and  whenever  the  great  financier  should  be 
discovered  near,  the  driver  was  to  run  against  the  first 
place  where  the  coach  would  be  upset. 

Law,  on  seeing  such  a  catastrophe,  hastened  to  render 
assistance,  and  of  course  led  the  lady  into  the  Hotel  de 
Sessions,  where  she  immediately  recovered  from  her 
fright,  and  confessed  her  stratagem  to  her  cortege. 
Law  smiled,  and  entered  her  name  as  a  purchaser  of  his 
stock.  Another  lady  raised  an  alarm  of  fire  while  Law 
was  at  dinner.  In  the  melee ,  while  all  were  rushing  in, 
and  suspecting  what  her  object  was,  he  escaped  in 
another  direction. 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  SCHEME. 


45 


It  is  said  that  the  Regent  of  France  one  day  stated 
in  the  presence  of  some  dignitaries  that  he  was  anxious 
to  depute  some  lady,  of  the  rank  at  least  of  a  duchess, 
to  attend  upon  his  daughter  at  Modena  ;  “but,”  he 
added,  “I  do  not  know  exactly  where  to  find  one.” 
“You  do  not?”  replied  one,  in  affected  surprise.  “I 
can  tell  you  where  to  find  every  duchess  in  France: 
you  have  only  to  go  to  Law’s ;  you  will  find  them  every 
one  in  his  ante-chamber.” 

In  mania  there  are  two  extremes  :  the  first  is  in  the 
excitement  of  hope,  which  we  have  now  described  as 
having  occurred  in  the  Mississippi  Scheme.  But  “  one 
extreme  leads  to  another.”  The  pendulum  carried 
from  its  equilibrium  in  one  direction,  cut  loose,  swings 
as  far  the  other  way.  So  with  the  human  mind.  There 
are  limits  beyond  which  it  cannot  be  excited.  When 
these  limits  are  reached,  there  the  mind  may  pause  for 
a  while;  but  in  due  time  it  finds  its  way  back,  and,  im¬ 
pelled  by  frenzy  as  before,  it  plunges  into  the  darkness 
of  despair. 

The  French  mania  for  speculation  having  spent  its 
force,  there  began  to  be  great  fluctuations  in  the  price 
of  Mississippi  stock.  The  shares  occasionally  rose 
twenty-five  per  cent,  in  the  course  of  a  few  hours,  and 
many  persons  in  the  lower  walks  of  life  who  had  risen 
poor  in  the  morning  went  to  bed  possessed  of  fortunes. 
In  this  way  cook-maids  and  servants  easily  acquired 
wealth,  in  the  disposition  of  which  they  made  the  most 
ludicrous  mistakes.  Decked  out  with  the  finery  of 
wealth,  while  preserving  the  meanness  of  their  birth 
and  station,  they  made  themselves  the  laughing-stock 
of  all. 

The  wreck  and  debasement  of  the  public  mind  now 


4  6 


IDEOLOGY. 


became  manifest  in  the  robberies  committed  daily  in 
the  streets.  Assassinations  were  also  frequent,  as  the 
people  were  believed  to  carry  about  with  them  immense 
sums  in  paper.  The  temptation  was  strong,  not  upon 
blacklegs  alone,  but  upon  others  high  in  the  ranks  of 
aristocracy.  The  Count  d’ Havre,  a  young  brother  of 
the  Prince,  and  related  to  the  noble  families  of  D’Arem- 
burg,  a  young  man  of  loose  habits,  in  connection  with 
two  others,  formed  the  design  to  rob  a  rich  broker,  who 
was  known  to  have  large  sums  about  his  person.  This 
infatuated  Count,  after  arranging  to  meet  his  victim  for 
the  purchase  of  stock,  sprang  suddenly  upon  him,  and 
stabbed  him  to  the  heart. 

This  crime  was  committed  in  open  day,  and  under 
circumstances  which  led  to  the  seizure  of  the  murderers, 
who  were  condemned  to  be  broken  alive  upon  the 
wheel.  Prompt  and  severe  as  this  justice  was,  it  did 
not  lessen  the  number  of  assassinations.  No  sympathy 
was  shown  to  the  rich,  whenever  they  happened  to  be 
stripped  of  their  ill-gotten  gains.  The  pernicious  love 
of  gain  had  corrupted  all  classes,  and  the  general  laxity 
of  public  morals,  conspicuous  enough  before,  was  now 
rendered  still  more  so,  until  all  private  virtue  seemed 
lost  in  the  stream  of  corruption  which  overflowed  the 
nation. 

Early  in  the  year  1720  the  tide  began  to  turn  ;  and, 
to  afford  relief,  Law  managed  to  bring  about  an  edict 
forbidding  the  use  of  specie  altogether.  But  the 
measures  adopted  for  restricting  the  use  of  specie 
tended  only  to  increase  the  real  difficulty,  until  the 
people  were  driven  to  the  brink  of  revolution,  and  the 
whole  country  joined  in  one  general  cry  of  distress  at 
the  enormous  tyrannies  practised  upon  them. 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  SCHEME. 


47 


The  most  hateful  persecutions  took  place  daily ;  the 
privacy  of  families  was  violated,  confidence  destroyed, 
and  honest  people  were  suspected  and  denounced  as 
guilty  of  infamous  crimes.  Fear  and  distrust  every¬ 
where  prevailed.  Epithets  of  bitter  censure  were 
heaped  upon  Law  and  the  Regent  of  France;  and 
never,  says  a  French  historian,  was  seen  a  more  capri¬ 
cious  government,  — never  was  a  more  frantic  tyranny 
exercised  over  any  people  by  hands  less  firm.  It  was 
inconceivable  to  those  who  were  witnesses  of  the  horrors 
of  those  times,  and  who  looked  back  upon  them  as  upon 
a  dream,  that  a  sudden  revolution  did  not  break  out ; 
that  Law  and  the  Regent  did  not  perish  by  a  tragical 
death.  They  were  both  held  in  horror  ;  but  the  people 
confined  themselves  to  complaints.  A  sombre  and 
timid  despair,  a  stupid  consternation,  had  seized  upon 
all;  and  men’s  minds  were  too  vile'even  to  be  capable 
of  a  courageous  crime. 

Of  all  nations  in  the  world,  it  is  said  the  French  are 
the  most  jolly,  and  renowned  for  singing  over  their 
grievances.  Of  that  country  it  has  been  remarked  that 
its  whole  history  might  be  traced  in  its  songs.  Satire 
was  therefore  ready  for  pouncing  upon  Law  when,  by 
the  failure  of  his  scheme,  the  people  had  found  them¬ 
selves  overwhelmed  in  the  ruin  he  had  brought  upon 
them.  Caricatures  of  his  person  appeared  in  the  shops, 
and,  in  the  street,  songs  resounded  heaping  contempt 
upon  him  and  his  Mississippi  Scheme.  The  man  who, 
only  a  few  months  before,  was  hailed  by  the  masses  as 
the  savior  of  France,  was  now  denounced  as  a  vaga¬ 
bond,  despised  and  condemned  as  a  thief,  a  liar,  and  a 
cheat,  —  now  too  vile  to  be  permitted  to  remain  in  the 
country.  The  mob  and  the  court  would  have  been 


48 


IDEOLOGY. 


glad  to  have  seen  him  hanged.  Caricatures  also  were 
published  of  his  scheme,  until  John  Law  had  sunk  as 
low  as  disgust  demanded  of  one  held  in  utter  contempt 
by  the  entire  nation. 

In  process  of  time  the  people  began  to  realize  the 
real  nature  of  that  humbug  with  which  they  had  been 
deluded.  The  Government  of  France  at  last  began  to 
see  how  much  the  aristocracy  had  contributed  to  the 
general  distress,  and  adopted  means  for  affording  relief. 
The  national  debt  on  the  first  of  January,  1721, 
amounted  to  upwards  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-four 
millions  sterling,  the  interest  on  which  was  $3,196,000. 
Measures  were  also  taken  for  bringing  to  condign  pun¬ 
ishment  all  who  had  been  guilty  of  fraud  in  carrying 
out  the  Mississippi  Scheme,  some  of  whom  were  con¬ 
demned  to  suffer  the  penalty  of  death.  But  the  effect 
of  this  mania  lastbd,  and  was  felt  in  the  nation  for 
many  years  after  the  principal  participants  had  passed 
away.  Thus  it  is  in  Nature  and  the  constitution  of 
things  :  a  futile  scheme  which  feeds  the  lust  for  gain 
may  in  a  few  short  months  involve  a  nation  in  bank¬ 
ruptcy,  while  for  the  nation’s  relief  and  salvation  ages 
of  patient,  sober  toil  are  found  necessary. 


CHAPTER  V. 


THE  CRUSADES. 


“  All  in  a  moment,  through  the  gloom  were  seen 
Ten  thousand  banners  rise  into  the  air, 

With  Orient  colors  waving.  With  them  rose 
A  forest  huge  with  spears  ;  and  thronging  helms 
Appeared  and  serried  shields  in  thick  array, 

Of  depth  immeasurable.” 

The  Crusades  may  be  considered  as  one  form  of 
Christian  epidemics.  If  it  should  be  said  that  witch¬ 
craft  and  the  Crusades  were  an  abuse,  I  can  admit  that 
they  may  be  so  considered  ;  indeed,  an  abuse  of  man¬ 
hood,  and  excess  in  human  credulity  and  fanaticism. 
But  I  am  sure  that  in  no  just  sense  could  these  epidem¬ 
ics  be  considered  an  abuse  of  Christianity,  which  is 
based  on  alleged  revelations  from  the  invisible  world. 
This  state  of  things  is  nothing  less  than  what  Christi¬ 
anity  calls  for  when  it  appeals  directly  to  man’s  credu¬ 
lity ,  while  threatening  him  with  eternal  damnation  in 
case  of  a  doubt. 

The  excitement  of  credulity  is  faith,  and  under  this 
excitement  man’s  conduct  may  be  said  to  be  high  or 
low,  fanatical  or  mad,  according  to  the  intelligence 
with  which  he  is  guided  ;  and  mysticism  is  not  designed 
to  encourage  self-culture.  Its  animus  is  credulity  and 
faith  in  “revelations  from  the  unknown  world.”  Hence, 
among  certain  classes,  mysticism  has  always  been  harsh, 


49 


50 


IDEOLOGY. 


cruel,  and  superstitious.  Among  barbarians  and  Pa¬ 
pists,  it  has  always  been  a  mixture  of  persecutions, 
austerities,  and  bloody  murders ;  while  those  more 
advanced,  who  retain  the  superstitions  of  former  gen¬ 
erations,  are  still  more  or  less  affected  with  those 
Christian  epidemics  which  prevailed  during  past  ages 
among  all  classes  of  the  people. 

The  genius  of  ancient  mediumism  is  to  keep  its 
victim  in  ignorance  of  Nature’s  laws  ;  and  at  the  time 
when  this  epidemic  commenced  in  Europe,  it  may  truly 
be  said  to  have  been  one  of  the  Dark  Ages,  as  perhaps 
no  age  of  the  world  could  be  referred  to  when  the 
ministers  of  Christianity  were  more  active  in  their 
efforts  for  exciting  credulity  among  the  masses  by  the 
sign  of  the  cross ,  and  urging  them  on  to  deeds  of  mad¬ 
dened  frenzy.  Hence  this  epidemic  took  its  name 
from  Croix  or  Crosier ,  —  a  little  cross,  usually  with  an 
image  of  “  Jesus  ”  or  some  other  object  attached  to  the 
top  of  the  staff,  and  which  the  priests  always  carried 
in  their  raids  upon  the  Turks.  Fanaticism  always  fixes 
upon  some  visible  sign  of  its  whim ,  its  folly  into  which 
it  drives  its  victims.  Excited  at  first  by  an  excess  of 
hope,  the  contagion  spreads  among  the  masses  by  the 
laws  of  sympathetic  imitation ,  as  in  war,  panics,  and 
revivals  ;  and  so  we  find  the  excitement  continued  to  a 
certain  degree  of  mental  heat.  Large  numbers  become 
thus  infused,  and  combining  political,  pecuniary,  and 
Christian  elements,  they  become  “mad”  with  excite¬ 
ment,  and  we  see  the  extremes  of  folly,  rapine,  murder, 
and  the  scenes  recorded  of  the  Crusades. 

Although  this  epidemic  has  sometimes  been  supposed 
to  have  been  “  got  up  by  a  friar  known  as  “  Peter  the 
Hermit,”  yet  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  this  man  had 


THE  CRUSADES. 


51 


no  power  except  what  was  yielded  to  him  by  the  igno¬ 
rance  and  credulity  of  the  masses.  The  field  had  been 
in  the  process  of  preparation  for  his  fanaticism  for  some 
four  hundred  years  before  his  name  had  been  heard  of. 
During  this  long  period  the  pilgrims  had  been  visiting 
“the  Holy  Land,”  and  the  exaggerated  stories  they  so 
often  told  of  the  dangers  they  had  passed  contributed 
to  that  state  of  things  in  the  church  at  home  throughout 
all  Europe,  which  finally  culminated  in  the  Crusades. 
Thus,  there  had  been  a  real  mania  for  pilgrimages  to 
Jerusalem  long  before  the  priests  undertook  specific 
measures  for  organizing  “the  armies  of  the  Lord,”  and 
the  Hermit  commenced  his  fanatical  labors  when  the 
fields  were  ready  for  the  harvest.  Indeed,  so  general  was 
this  infection  that  it  involved  all  classes  of  the  people 
who  were  Christian  in  their  prejudices.  The  vicious,  the 
idle  and  roving,  swelled  the  crowds,  increasing  in  their 
numbers  every  year,  until  they  were  dubbed  as  the 
“armies  of  the  Lord.”  To  the  vile  wretches  who  en¬ 
gaged  in  these  pilgrimages  the  promise  was  made  by 
the  priests  of  forgiveness,  and,  in  case  of  death,  their 
immediate  admission  into  heaven ;  while  the  faithful 
Papists,  full  of  enthusiasm,  set  all  the  dangers  at  defi¬ 
ance,  and  exulted  in  the  contemplation  of  walking  over 
the  earth  consecrated  by  the  feet  of  him  who  swooned 
upon  the  cross.  To  sip  the  waters  of  Jordan,  to  be 
baptized  in  the  same  river  where  John  performed  that 
rite  for  Jesus,  were  considered  the  highest  honor,  and 
the  acme  of  a  Christian’s  joy. 

To  them  it  was  an  object  “most  glorious”  and  sur¬ 
passingly  precious  to  wander  in  the  purlieus  of  the 
Temple,  or  that  awful  “place  of  skulls”  where  God 
himself  had  shed  his  blood  for  them  !  On  reaching 


52 


IDEOLOGY. 


Jerusalem,  £ins  of  the  deepest  die  were  obliterated,  and 
the  vilest  of  offenders  at  once  becam q pious  and  entitled 
to  the  divine  favor.  Once  in  that  holy  place,  the  soul 
was  “inspired”  with  the  sacred  aroma  exhaled  from 
every  object ;  and  hence  it  was  that  the  waters  of  the 
Jordan,  the  stone  from  the  streets,  the  dirt  from  the 
“place  of  skulls,”  were  brought  home  and  sold  at  ex¬ 
travagant  prices. 

Nor  did  this  zeal  stop  here  :  for  it  manufactured  cart¬ 
loads  of  apocryphal  “relics,”  always  so  popular  in  all 
Popish  latitudes,  —  such  as  the  wood  of  the  cross  on 
which  Jesus  was  affixed,  the  tears  of  the  Virgin  Mary 
and  the  hems  of  her  garments,  the  hair  and  the  toe¬ 
nails  of  the  Aoostles,  even  the  tents  which  Paul  had 
assisted  in  manufacturing  were  brought  from  Palestine 
by  the  returning  pilgrims,  “with  wondrous  cost  and 
care,”  until,  as  we  are  assured,  a  grove  of  a  hundred 
oaks  would  not  have  furnished  all  the  wood  sold  as  par¬ 
cels  of  the  “true  cross,”  and  the  water  called  “the 
tears  of  Mary  ”  would  have  filled  a  cistern  ! 

Such  were  the  superstitions  and  the  pious  frauds 
which  for  centuries  had  prepared  that  condition  of 
things  at  the  commencement  of  the  eleventh  century. 
The  Turks  had  for  some  two  hundred  years  encouraged 
these  pilgrimages,  from  pecuniary  considerations  alone, 
until  finally  they  imposed  a  tax  upon  each  pilgrim  visit¬ 
ing  Jerusalem,  and  the  imposition  of  this  tax  brought 
about  that  frenzy  which  resulted  in  the  Christian  wars 
to  which  history  has  given  the  name  of  the  Crusades. 

At  that  time  an  old  idea  had  been  revived  in  regard 
to  the  immediate  end  of  the  world  and  the  “  second 
advent”  of  Jesus  ;  but  which  soon  died  out,  as  it  had 
done  before,  and  to  be  revived  and  re-revived,  as  in 


THE  CRUSADES. 


53 


1843,  in  America,  under  the  name  of  Millerism,  and  by 
this  movement  revived  again  and  again,  and  “the  day” 
set  for  the  general  “smash  up.”  With  this  idea  the 
entire  Popish  mass  was  shaken,  until  a  Christian  panic 
had  seized  upon  the  weak  and  the  guilty,  who  consti¬ 
tuted  nineteen  twentieths  of  the  whole  population  of 
priests  and  people  !  They  left  their  homes  and  flocked 
to  the  place  where  they  were  to  be  freed  from  their 
sins  by  the  appearance  of  Jesus  at  Jerusalem  ;  and,  sim¬ 
ilarly  as  in  the  modern  Miller  excitement,  various 
“strange  sights  ”  were  seen.  The  stars  were  observed 
to  fall  from  heaven,  the  land  was  shaken  by  earthquakes, 
the  forests  were  devastated  by  hurricanes,  and  meteors 
in  the  sky  gave  unmistakable  evidence  of  the  approach¬ 
ing  Judgment  Day.  The  organ  of  Wonder  thus  ex¬ 
cited,  the  ignorant  multitude  saw  a  “strange”  sign  in 
the  common  astronomical  phenomena,  so  that  scarcely 
any  change  could  take  place  in  the  horizon  or  the 
atmosphere  which  did  not  fill  a  district  with  alarm,  and 
send  off  to  Jerusalem  a  crowd  of  pilgrims  with  crucifix 
in  hand  and  wallets  on  their  backs,  mumbling  their 
prayers,  as  they  trudged  along,  for  the  remission  of  their 
sins. 

Thus  men,  women,  and  children  swelled  the  ranks  of 
pilgrims  who  flocked  to  the  Holy  City  in  expectation  of 
the  immediate  “second  advent”  of  Jesus,  when  “the 
heavens  and  the  earth  should  pass  away  with  a  great 
noise,”  and  they  would  be  permitted  to  behold  the  Son 
of  God  descending  in  his  glory.  The  immense  num¬ 
bers  involved  in  that  stupendous  delusion  only  increased 
the  hardships  of  each,  until  food  could  not  be  found,  in 
the  localities  through  which  their  pilgrimages  were 
made,  for  the  supply  of  their  wants.  Beggars  became 


54 


IDEOLOGY. 


so  numerous  between  the  west  of  Europe  and  Constan¬ 
tinople  that  the  monks,  who  had  done  much  towards 
feeding  the  hungry  multitudes,  were  compelled  to  leave 
the  ignorant  and  misguided  fanatics  to  shift  for  them¬ 
selves  or  die. 

The  Papists  of  the  eleventh  century,  suffering  from 
want  of  food,  pressed  in  countless  multitudes  around 
the  gates  of  Jerusalem,  where  they  were  not  permitted 
to  enter  without  the  payment  of  the  tax  which  the 
Turkish  government  demanded  of  them.  The  hourly 
expectation  of  “  the  last  judgment  ”  kept  them  waiting, 
until  the  Turks,  apprehensive  of  being  themselves 
deprived  of  their  rights,  undertook  to  drive  the  pilgrims 
from  their  soil ;  and  now  it  was  that  acts  of  persecution 
and  plunder  commenced  for  this  purpose.  They  were 
beaten  with  stripes,  and  subjected  to  a  series  of  hard¬ 
ships  which  diverted  their  minds  from  the  contempla¬ 
tion  of  Christ’s  immediate  return  to  Jerusalem  !  and  as 
the  panic  began  to  subside  in  respect  to  “the  Day  of 
Judgment,”  it  was  superseded  by  another  epidemic, 
which  had  for  its  germ  the  conquest  and  possession  of 
the  Holy  Land. 

As  the  Papists  returned  to  their  homes,  they  narrated 
the  stories  of  what  they  had  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the 
Turks.  But  these  stories  only  served  to  increase 
the  mania  for  pilgrimages.  The  greater  the  sufferings, 
the  greater  the  certainty  of  forgiveness  and  salvation  in 
another  world.  Difficulties  and  sufferings  in  the  con¬ 
quest  of  Jerusalem  were  sure  to  merit  a  higher  place  in 
heaven ;  and  the  zeal  manifested  by  the  faithful  Pa¬ 
pists  in  the  extermination  of  the  Turks  was  held  out  as 
a  ground  of  claim  upon  the  infinite  God,  not  to  be 
invalidated  by  any  crime  which  it  was  possible  to  com- 


THE  CRUSADES. 


55 


mit !  And  in  this  way,  to  win  the  “divine  favor  ”  and 
secure  imperishable  glory  beyond  the  grave,  fresh  bands 
of  priests  and  people  issued  from  every  village,  and  this 
frenzy  continued  during  the  whole  of  the  eleventh  cen¬ 
tury.  Thus  was  the  soil  prepared.  The  train  that 
was  so  soon  to  explode,  in  the  Crusades,  was  now  laid, 
and  this  condition  of  things  turned  out  the  man  for  that 
hour.  Like  all  other  religious  chieftains  before  and 
since,  “  Peter  the  Hermit  ”  had  a  competency  made  up 
of  ignorance,  crcdidity,  bigotry ,  fanaticism,  and  zeal ,  which 
suited  the  times  in  which  he  lived.  If  these  elements 
do  not  constitute  insanity,  they  certainly  lead  to  it ;  and, 
when  combined  and  excited  in  one  mind,  they  make 
that  mental  condition  to  which  the  term  “fanaticism” 
is  always  applied  wherever  there  is  a  failure  in  what  is 
undertaken,  or  whenever  the  enthusiast  is  found  differ¬ 
ing  in  opinion  from  a  large  majority  of  the  people. 

Peter  had  been  a  soldier  and  a  monk.  He  was  insig¬ 
nificant  in  person,  but,  having  all  the  prerequisites  of 
an  enthusiastic  fanatic,  he  visited  Jerusalem,  where  he 
could  himself  see  the  indignities  heaped  upon  the  Pa¬ 
pists,  and  when  he  returned  he  shook  the  world  by  the 
stories  he  told  of  their  wrongs. 

Let  us  now  look  at  the  means  and  the  power  which 
this  ignorant  zealot  found  at  his  command  :  — 

The  element  of  wonder.  The  religious  idea  is  power. 
No  other  idea  has  had  so  much  influence  over  the 
minds  of  men,  and  the  extent  of  this  influence  is 
increased  always  by  ignorance,  by  the  want  of  informa¬ 
tion  in  respect  to  the  human  mind  and  the  laws  by  which 
it  is  governed.  Consult  the  history  of  the  world,  and 
you  will  find  that  the  Christian  idea,  that  is,  the  idea  of 
some  good  or  evil,  the  hope  or  the  fearoi  which  is  based 


56 


IDEOLOGY. 


on  an  alleged  revelation  from  the  invisible  world ,  has 
had  more  power  over  the  masses  than  patriotism  merely, 
—  more  power  even  than  any  other  one  idea.  And  the 
ignorant  fanatic,  seizing  upon  this  power,  succeeds,  of 
course,  wherever  and  whenever  this  idea  prevails  among 
the  people. 

At  the  period  here  referred  to  the  Popish  idea  of 
religion  prevailed  in  Europe.  No  matter  how  much 
of  a  blackleg  or  a  villain  any  one  might  be,  he  was 
under  the  influence  of  this  Popish  idea.  This  element 
in  the  hands  of  Peter  was  power. 

Then,  also,  there  were  all  the  orders  of  the  priest¬ 
hood,  from  the  Pope  downward ;  and  the  influence  of 
the  Popish  clergy  is  proverbial  in  all  countries.  The 
clergy  are  that  class  which  the  masses  pay  for  doing 
their  thinking  for  them.  The  priest  is  the  “  keeper  of 
the  consciences  ”  of  all  such  as  approach  the  confes¬ 
sional.  He  holds  the  keys  of  the  door  which  opens 
into  heaven.  He  is  the  vicegerent  of  the  infinite  God, 
and  has  power  to  forgive  sin,  or  to  consign  the  sinner 
to  the  pains  and  penalties  of  an  eternal  hell.  No  other 
class  of  men  ever  did  have,  and  none  other,  perhaps, 
ever  can  have,  so  much  power  over  the  masses  ;  and  to 
this  class  Peter  the  Hermit  belonged.  As  the  Popish 
idea  ruled  the  minds  of  the  people,  so  the  clergy,  who 
preached,  prayed,  and  represented  that  idea,  were  all 
and  in  all.  They  kept  the  popular  mind  in  ignorance 
and  the  most  slavish  subjection  to  their  wishes.  The 
people  considered  them  their  friends,  because,  while 
the  civil  government  gave  them  no  rights  in  this  world, 
the  priests  promised  them  all  they  could  wish  for  in  the 
next,  and  the  promise  was  made  more  sure  to  all  who 
should  become  “soldiers  of  the  Lord  ”  for  the  recovery 
of  Jerusalem. 


THE  CRUSADES. 


57 


To  a  people  thus  ignorant  and  subdued  by  priestly 
domination,  the  priests  had  only  to  recommend  the 
Crusade,  and  the  yielding  masses  joined  in  it  with 
enthusiasm.  It  was  the  theme  of  all  sermons,  the  sub¬ 
ject  of  all  conversation.  It  filled  all  minds  ;  and  business, 
friends,  and  home  were  all  abandoned  for  the  crucifix 
and  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land.  The  tales  of  the 
pilgrims  for  two  centuries  were  narrated  from  mouth 
to  mouth  ;  they  were  repeated  in  the  nursery,  and  im¬ 
mortalized  in  verse.  This  state  of  things  continued, 
and,  increasing  by  the  well-known  laws  of  sympathetic 
imitation  for  the  space  of  two  centuries,  it  is  easy  to 
see  the  germ  whence  was  originated  that  stupendous 
epidemic  known  in  history  as  the  Crusades. 

Masses  of  men,  communities,  and  nations  are  excited, 
fused ,  and  controlled  by  an  idea  similarly  as  an  individ¬ 
ual  is  thus  controlled.  Notice  here  the  processes : 
First,  an  idea  is  developed  slowly  in  the  mind  ;  it  is 
addressed  to  the  organ  of  Marvellousness,  and  has 
respect  to  an  alleged  “revelation”  from  another  world, 
of  which  nothing  is  known.  In  its  contemplation  the 
excitement  spreads  by  credulity ,  hope,  and  fear.  In 
process  of  time  this  idea  reaches  a  majority  of  all  the 
mental  faculties,  and  thus  comes  into  the  possession  of 
the  soul,  until  it  controls  the  whole  conduct  of  life.  An 
idea  crystallized  into  actions  becomes  a  visible,  tangible 
reality.  It  is  the  living  voice  in  the  thoughts  and 
actions  by  which  it  is  communicated  from  parents  to 
children,  from  one  neighbor  to  another,  until  it  is  found 
in  the  sermons  and  the  prayers  of  the  priest,  in  the 
books  and  the  literature  of  the  country.  Human  nature 
is  imitative ;  what  one  believes,  another  believes,  for 
no  other  reason  than  that  it  is  believed  by  somebody 


58 


IDEOLOGY. 


else.  The  most  powerful  influences  exerted  over  the 
minds  of  men  are  in  ideas ,  true  or  false  ;  and  often  we 
shall  find  that  the  only  reason  which  the  masses  can 
give  for  “the  faith  that  is  in  them  ”  is,  “  Somebody  told 
me  so,”  “Somebody  else  believed  so.” 

In  the  heat  of  a  mental  epidemic,  people  are  not  in 
a  condition  for  appreciating  the  dictates  of  reason,  even 
if  they  had  the  capacity  for  so  doing..  Is  the  soldier, 
when  in  the  excitement  of  battle,  in  a  condition  for 
solving  the  problems  of  Euclid  ?  As  we  have  seen, 
Peter  the  Hermit  had  visited  Palestine,  where  he  first 
formed  the  grand  idea  of  arousing  the  whole  Christian 
world  to  the  rescue  of  the  Holy  Land ;  and,  completely 
bewitched  with  this  thought,  it  haunted  his  mind  with 
visions,  one  of  which  was  so  vivid  that  he  declared  his 
belief  that  Jesus  had  actually  appeared  to  him,  promising 
him  aid  in  his  holy  undertaking.  This  dream  was  a 
clincher,  and  from  this  time  his  career  may  be  said 
to  have  fairly  commenced.  Though  he  was  himself  a 
devoted  Papist,  he  demanded  an  interview  with  the 
Patriarch  of  the  Greek  Church  at  Jerusalem,  who  was 
a  heretic.  The  minds  of  opposing  parties  are  often 
fused  in  mental  epidemics.  From  the  Patriarch  he 
hastened  to  the  feet  of  Pope  Urban  II.  in  Italy.  This 
prelate  received  the  Hermit  kindly,  and,  after  listening 
to  his  story,  sent  him  forth  to  preach  the  Popish  War 
to  all  the  nations  and  potentates  of  Christendom.  Thus 
qualified,  Peter  went  forth,  and  travelled  through  Italy, 
Germany,  and  France,  proclaiming  war  against  the 
Turks,  war  to  the  knife,  —  war,  bloody  war,  —  until 
countless  thousands  rallied  to  his  call. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  Pope  devoted  himself  with 
ardor  to  the  work.  Towards  the  close  of  the  year  1095 


THE  CRUSADES. 


59 


he  called  a  council  at  Placentia,  where  he  adopted 
measures  for  rallying  the  clergy  and  all  who  should 
become  officers  and  leaders  in  the  expedition.  This 
conduct  of  the  Pope,  who  was  considered  God’s  vice¬ 
gerent  on  earth,  could  of  course  have  no  other  effect 
than  to  unite  the  clergy  and  the  entire  church  in  one 
general  movement  against  the  Turks.  The  Pope  was 
the  head  of  the  church,  and  he  could  not  err.  What¬ 
ever  met  with  his  approval  was  God’s  own  work;  and 
hence  with  one  mind  the  people  everywhere  gathered 
in  crowds  from  all  parts  of  Europe.  Camps  were 
formed  in  every  parish,  and  on  every  hand  were  seen 
the  implements  of  war. 

It  would  require  volumes  to  describe  in  detail  the 
part  which  the  Pope,  the  clergy,  and  the  church  per¬ 
formed  in  carrying  out  the  Popish  idea  of  a  war  of  utter 
extermination  against  the  Turks.  Indeed,  to  form  any 
just  conception  of  the  deep  and  all-pervading  influences 
exerted  over  the  Italian,  the  French,  the  German,  and 
the  English  people,  we  must  understand  what  is  in¬ 
cluded  in  Popery,  the  ecclesiastical  machinery,  and  the 
unresisting  obedience  which  these  nations  yielded  at 
that  time  to  the  dictation  of  the  priesthood. 

The  labors  of  Peter  alone  were  sufficiently  varied  and 
extended  to  require  a  volume  in  their  recital,  not  to 
speak  of  the  council  of  Claremont,  the  oration  of  Pope 
Urban,  and  the  uprising  of  the  people  that  followed. 
Also  of  “Walter  the  Penniless,”  and  of  Gottschalk, 
and  of  Semlin,  and  of  Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  and  of 
Count  Vermandois,  and  of  Tancred,  and  the  hosts  of 
priests,  noblemen,  and  military  chieftains  who  became 
so  distinguished  as  leaders  in  the  “armies  of  the  Lord  ” 
for  the  conquest  of  Jerusalem. 


6o 


IDEOLOGY. 


There  were  seven  expeditions,  each  one  involving 
more  than  could  here  be  described, — whether  in  re¬ 
spect  to  numbers,  the  expenditure  of  treasure,  disaster, 
enthusiasm,  bigotry,  hate,  suffering,  and  the  loss  of 
human  life  which  the  fanaticism  of  the  age  rendered 
necessary.  In  that  epidemic  Europe  expended  millions 
in  money  and  the  blood  of  more  than  two  millions  of 
her  children.  And  for  what  purpose  ?  As  we  have 
seen,  it  was  to  carry  out  a  fanatical  idea  of  conquest ; 
to  invade  and  despoil  another  nation  of  its  rights  ;  and 
as  far  as  success  attended  those  filibustering  expedi¬ 
tions,  what  then  ?  Why,  a  squad  of  quarrelsome  Popish 
knights  retained  possession  of  Palestine  for  about  one 
hundred  years, — a  change  in  the  government  not  for 
the  better,  so  far  as  can  now  be  seen. 

Yet,  an  epidemic  so  extensive  in  its  ramifications,  so 
long  continued,  and  so  mighty  in  its  results,  had  a 
logic  in  its  events  which  presents  important  lessons  of 
instruction  to  the  ages  that  follow.  The  Popish  feudal 
chiefs  were  improved  by  coming  in  contact  with  a  civ¬ 
ilization  in  Asia  better  than  any  they  had  known  in 
Christendom ;  and  thus  it  was  when  they  returned 
their  vassals  secured  some  small  instalments  of  their 
political  rights.  Even  the  crowned  heads,  now  no 
longer  at  war  with  their  nobility,  had  time  to  contem¬ 
plate  the  wishes  of  the  people  ;  and  the  people,  by  the 
agitation  of  thought,  had  learned  more  freedom  of 
opinion  by  the  evils  they  had  suffered. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE  TRANCE  EPIDEMIC. 

It  is  not  of  the  Spiritualists  as  a  liberal,  progressive 
class  of  people  that  I  speak.  They  are  head  and 
shoulders  above  the  old  form  of  mysticism  ;  and  but  for 
the  fact  that  I  treat  of  what  I  know  to  be  true  in  regard 
to  the  trance,  and  for  science  and  humanity,  I  might 
not,  perhaps,  refer  to  their  mediums  at  all.  This  part 
of  the  new  movement  is  an  epidemic  as  really  as  witch¬ 
craft,  or  any  religious  revivals.  It  spreads  by  sensa¬ 
tional  ideas  and  ideal  contagion.  It  was  an  incidental 
culmination  from  a  “haunted  house”  in  Hydesville, 
N.  Y.,  March  31,  1848.  I  visited  the  locality  soon 
after,  and  was  posted  as  to  the  facts  by  a  good  old 
woman,  Mrs.  Fox,  and  her  three  daughters.  And, 
although  the  mystic  rap  (the  type  of  all  the  mystical 
phenomena)  has  often  approved  and  endorsed  the  Bible, 
yet  I  believe  that  only  an  inconsiderable  number  of  the 
rank  and  file  in  this  sensational  movement  still  cling 
to  Christianity.  I  have  now  before  me  an  octavo  pam¬ 
phlet,  published  in  Auburn,  N.  Y.,  in  1849,  containing 
“  messages  ”  purporting  to  come  from  the  dead,  through 
Mrs.  Benedict,  the  medium,  to  a  company  of  Millerites, 
confirming  their  views  as  to  the  “  resurrection  of  the 
dead”  and  the  immediate  destruction  of  our  planet; 
thus  showing  that  while  modern  mediums  are  “in- 

61 


62 


IDEOLOGY. 


spired  ”  as  really  in  a  state  of  trance  as  Abraham  and 
Peter  and  Paul  were,  the  so-called  spirits  that  control 
them  “communicate”  nothing  that  they  cannot  pre¬ 
viously  learn  through  the  trance  brains  of  a  medium, 
and  those  to  whom  the  “message”  is  made.  Hence, 
the  trance  in  this  modern  form  of  mysticism  is  esti¬ 
mated  as  a  “royal  road,”  an  open  door,  as  Paul  said,  to 
“the  third  heavens”  and  the  condition  of  all  the  dead. 
In  the  “trance  ”  of  a  modern  medium,  death’s  seal  upon 
the  past  in  human  life  is  taken  off,  and  the  secrets  of 
the  grave  exposed  to  the  light  of  noonday.  A  “rap” 
on  the  table  leg,  by  forms  of  force  of  which  we  can 
know  nothing,  materializes  human  ideas. 

Gabriel,  Jesus,  and  Isaiah 

Have  made  the  “  rap  ”  so  very  loud, 

That  no  mystic  thunder  could  be  higher, 

Or  gather  such  another  crowd. 

Modern  mediumship  is  a  repetition  of  Christianity  in 
its  “trances,”  “visions,”  and  “inspiration.”  In  its 
motive-power  (both  in  things  unknown)  it  is  the  same. 
It  is  based  upon  mediums,  precisely  the  same  as  the 
Bible  and  Christianity ;  and,  while  the  latter  claims 
that  its  trances  and  visions  are  superior,  because  of 
their  having  been,  even  long  ago,  superinduced  by 
“Almighty  God,”  the  modern  mediums  claim  that  their 
trances  are  produced  by  those  now  dead.  They  have 
no  “creed;”  each  one  speaks  for  himself,  and  “the 
Devil  take  the  hindmost.”  Mediums  are  always  the 
eyes  and  the  ears  of  all  gods  and  ghosts  !  Myths  and 
invisibilities  of  all  grades  are  utter  know-nothings  and 
do-nothings,  without  the  trance  and  a  medium’s  brains. 
Had  they  any  knowledge  of  us,  no  mediums  or  trances 
would  be  necessary. 


THE  TRANCE  EPIDEMIC. 


63 


Modern  mediums  rely  more  or  less  upon  what  the 
mystic  rap  signifies  to  them  in  a  state  they  call  the 
trance  ;  albeit  the  pathology  and  the  psychology  of  this 
state  do  not  seem  to  identify  it  with  those  cases  of 
mental  anaesthesia  self-induced,  and  related  in  my  first 
volume  on  Ideology.  I  was  acquainted  with  nearly  all 
the  early  trance  mediums  in  1850,  and,  among  the 
number,  with  Miss  Lizzie  Doten,  one  of  the  “  inspired  ” 
writers.  In  her  enhancement,  Edgar  A.  Poe  is  said  to 
have  repeated  some  rhymes  that  he  never  wrote  !  She 
was  always  considered  at  the  head  of  the  list ;  and  now, 
since  her  publication  of  her  sensation  in  her  own  state 
of  trance,  in  my  estimation  she  holds  rank  with  St. 
Paul  in  this  regard.  As  the  apostle  shows  in  his 
account  of  his  own  case  how  really  he  was  “out  of  his 
wits”  in  the  trance,  so  Miss  Doten,  in  behalf  of  Spirit¬ 
ualism,  shows  in  her  account  how  perfectly  she  was 
bamboozled  in  her  own  entrancement.  Hence  she 
affirms  of  her  state  that  it  was  “  dizzy ,  frenzied ,  abnor¬ 
mal,  misty ,  petrifying ,  embryonic ,  zucak,  vaporish ,  faint , 
and  horrible  /  ” 

I  state  what  must  be  admitted  when  I  say  that,  as 
a  general  thing,  mediums  are  ignorant  of  ideology  and 
the  anatomy  of  faith  ;  hence  they  are  easily  victimized 
by  this  form  of  mysticism.  In  this  state  of  things, 
people  are  constantly  dying,  and  their  sorrowing  friends 
want  to  hear  from  them,  when  they  send  five  dollars  to 
a  world-renowned  medium  in  New  York,  addressed 
to  some  one  dead,  and  all  the  knowledge  that  comes 
through  reading  sealed  letters,  or  through  any  medium, 
is  obtained  by  the  clairvoyance  of  some  unknowable 
nondescript  ghost,  obtained  through  a  medium’s  brain. 
The  responding  spirit  knows  nothing  of  you  or  your 


64  IDEOLOGY. 

f 

wishes  until  you  suggest  yourself  to  some  medium,  or 
you  are  yourself  mediumistic  ;  and  in  that  case  once 
victimized  by  faith  in  mysticism,  I  should  no  more 
hope,  perhaps,  to  convince  you  of  error  than  if  you 
believed  your  soul  had  been  converted  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  as  I  know  by  a  long  experience  mediums  have 
been  as  really  converted  and  born  again  as  any  Christian 
ever  was. 

Under  the  control  of  faith  and  your  own  idea  of  the 
trance,  it  would  be  of  little  or  no  use  to  ask  you  how  I 
am  to  cross-examine  an  invisible  witness,  nor  how  my 
external  eyes  can  see  a  pure  spirit,  nor  how  you  can  be 
said  to  see  a  spirit  when  it  is  a  material  form  you  see, 
and  one  assumed  to  suit  your  own  idea,  and  thus  to 
deceive  you.  Or,  if  I  were  to  ask  how  it  can  be  safe 
for  us  to  build  theories  of  a  summer-land  upon  pheno¬ 
mena  produced  by  forms  of  force  regarding  which  all 
are  in  the  dark.  And  here  I  state  a  problem  I  have 
often  put  to  those  carried  away  by  this  epidemic,  but 
to  which  I  never  got  an  answer.  It  is  this  one  :  “To 
what  responsibility  can  you  hold  a  ghost  that  falsifies  ?  ” 


CHAPTER  VII. 


FASCINATION. 


Umbro,  the  brave  Moruban  Priest,  was  there, 

Sent  by  the  Marsian  Monarch  to  the  war. 

The  smiling  olive  with  her  verdant  boughs 
Shades  his  bright  helmet  and  adorns  his  brows, 

His  charms  in  peace  the  furious  serpent  keep 
And  lull  the  enamored  viper  race  to  sleep. 

His  healing  hand  allayed  the  raging  pain, 

And  at  his  touch  the  poison  fled  again. 

Virg.  Atu.  7,  ver.  750. 

No  matter  what  the  term  may  be,  “fascination”  or 
“charm,”  the  philosophy  as  to  the  results  induced  is 
the  same.  They  follow  any  and  all  processes  by  self- 
induction. 

The  Tribellans  and  Illyrians,  who,  with  their  very  eye-sight 
can  witch,  yea,  and  kill  those  who  they  look  wistly  upon  any 
long  time.  —  Hallam’s  Pliny ,  i.  lyy. 

Hence  the  term  “fascination  ”  was  anciently  used  as 
synonymous  with  “eye-bite,”  because  it  was  from  the 
sight  of  the  eyes  of  the  snake  that  the  influence  was 
supposed  to  come  which  produced  the  “charm.”  The 
term  is  from  Fascia ,  a  band  by  which  one  becomes 
bound  or  swathed ;  and  there  are  similar  terms,  such  as 
signify  the  effects  produced  by  a  “  charm  ”  (from  carmen , 
a  verse  or  song)  and  “enchantment”  (to  sing  a  magic 
song),  and  from  which  we  have  “incantation  ”  (in  and 

65 


66 


IDEOLOGY. 


canoy  to  sing),  because  this  power  was  manifested  by 
singing. 

The  term  “spell”  comes  from  the  Saxon  “spel,” 
which  signifies  a  story,  magic  charm,  or  song,  and  from 
this  we  have  the  “  gospel  ”  (from  good  and  spel),  or  good 
story. 

Indeed,  there  are  a  variety  of  terms,  such  as  Amulet, 
Talisman,  Philters,  Relics,  Bewitch,  etc.,  which  have  a 
correlative  meaning  not  unlike  what  is  understood  by 
“Animal  Magnetism,”  “Mesmerism,”  or  “Ideology.” 

In  the  American  Phrenological  Journal  for  Septem¬ 
ber,  1864,  a  writer  ventilates  upon  what  he  calls  “The 
Ancient  Magic  Crystal,”  and  the  marvellous  results 
produced  by  “The  Virgin’s  Eye,”  and  certain  “per¬ 
fumes  ”  from  burning  incense.  So  we  have  the  same 
“influence  ”  from  the  hand  of  “the  seventh  son  ;  ”  and 
scrofulous  tubercles  in  the  neck  were  called  “  the  King’s 
Evil,”  because  they  were  supposed  to  be  cured  by  the 
touch  of  the  king’s  hand.  Stories  often  appear  in  the 
papers,  though  never  authenticated,  of  birds,  and  even 
men,  said  to  have  been  fascinated  by  snakes. 

Here  it  is  in  place  to  remark  that  all  these  stories 
are  related  of  these  amulets,  crystals,  charms,  and  ser¬ 
pents,  precisely  as  if  a  material  substance  had  passed 
out  of  the  snake  into  the  bird  or  the  man  which  is 
charmed ;  that  is,  these  stories  are  told  in  support  of 
this  theory.  According  to  this  notion,  the  same  results 
in  each  case  would  have  occurred  if  the  bird  or  the  man 
had  been  totally  blind  ! 

Yet  how  common  it  is  for  writers  to  elaborate  gossa¬ 
mer  theories  in  respect  to  a  “nervous  fluid,”  and  the 
“universal  ether,”  through  which  it  is  transmitted  by 
the  volition  of  a  snake  into  the  brains  of  a  human 


FASCINATION. 


67 


being!  And  this  notion  of  an  “ether”  is,  indeed,  a 
very  convenient  omnibus  in  which  credulity  often  finds 
it  necessary  to  ride. 

The  bird  is  fascinated  through  the  sense  of  fear,  and 
man  is  fascinated,  not  only  through  a  sense  of  danger, 
but  by  his  hope,  by  his  credulity,  and  by  his  love  for 
the  marvellous. 

This  notion  of  a  magnetic  fluid,  ejected  by  volition 
out  of  one  living  body  into  another,  like  numerous  the¬ 
ological  fancies,  had  its  origin  when  science  was  young. 

But  as  to  the  phenomena  referred  to,  we  need  not 
now  stop  to  inquire :  we  may  admit  that  they  have 
occurred,  though  not  as  represented. 

And  now  the  most  important  question  presents  itself 
for  solution  :  What  is  the  rationale  of  their  induction  ? 
Where  is  the  immediate  cause  located  ?  Is  it  in  the 
serpent,  or  in  the  brains  of  the  bird  or  the  man  which 
is  thus  fascinated  ? 

A  young  lady  visited  Niagara  Falls,  and  approaching 
a  precipice  to  pluck  a  flower  that  grew  upon  its  brink, 
as  she  happened  to  look  over  upon  the  frightful  chasm 
to  which  she  found  herself  so  very  near,  fascinated 
with  a  sense  of  danger,  she  fell  over  into  the  abyss,  and 
was  dashed  to  pieces  upon  the  rocks  below.  She  was 
fascinated  by  fear,  and  similarly  the  bird  may  be  fasci¬ 
nated  through  its  sense  of  danger. 

Human  beings  are  fascinated  by  credulity ,  by  hope , 
by  love,  and  by  fear ;  and  the  immediate  cause  is  in  the 
mind  whenever  it  is  thus  overcome.  So  we  are  fasci¬ 
nated  by  music,  by  beauty,  and  by  patriotism  or  wor¬ 
ship  ;  and  shall  we  be  told  that  in  all  such  cases  the 
fascination  is  produced  by  a  “nervous  fluid,”  ejected 
out  of  one  mind  into  another  ? 


68 


IDEOLOGY. 


Fascination  (if  it  ever  did  occur  as  is  alleged  by  ser¬ 
pents)  is  induced  by  fear ,  or  by  an  idea  in  the  mind, 
and  not  by  any  fluid  from  the  serpent’s  eyes.  The  way 
in  which  ideas  and  images  are  often  deeply  impressed 
upon  the  mind  is  illustrated  by  what  has  recently  taken 
the  name  of  “spectrophia.”  The  process  is  by  a  well- 
known  law  of  optics  :  thus,  for  a  minute  you  fix  your 
eyes  upon  a  colored  picture,  in  as  strong  light  as  possi¬ 
ble,  and  then  lift  your  eyes,  without  varying  or  winking, 
upon  a  white  sheet  or  wall  in  a  darkened  room,  and  you 
will  presently  behold  the  same  figure,  of  a  colossal  size 
(the  size  depending  on  your  distance  from  the  wall),  but 
of  a  different  color.  An  impression  made  thus  upon 
the  retina  is  retained  by  the  optic  nerve,  and  magnified 
by  the  mind  into  a  picture,  which  picture,  however,  has 
no  other  existence  than  that  which  it  derives  from 
memory. 

“  Mine  is  the  charm  whose  magic  sway, 

The  spirits  of  the  past  delight  to  obey ; 

Let  but  the  tuneful  talisman  sound, 

And  they  come  like  genii  hovering  round.” 

Moore. 

The  results  supposed  to  come  from  the  charm  always 
followed  through  the  exercise  of  one  or  more  of  the  exter¬ 
nal  senses ,  —  a  fact  that  should  never  be  overlooked  in 
our  attempts  to  arrive  at  the  true  philosophy  by  which 
all  such  results  are  induced.  Were  there  any  such 
“force”  “passing”  from  the  “eyes  of  a  serpent,”  as 
has  been  supposed,  “into  the  eyes  of  a  man,”  by  which 
he  is  said  to  have  been  “charmed,”  precisely  the  same 
effects  should  follow  in  cases  of  total  blindness.  But 
no  such  case  was  ever  known,  and  hence  we  find  always 
that  it  is  only  persons  of  a  certain  idiosyncrasy  that 
are  “charmed,”  and  whenever  the  charm  is  felt,  it  is 


FASCINATION. 


69 


self-induced  through  the  external  senses.  The  notion 
that  a  snake  has  the  power  of  “passing  a  force”  into 
the  human  brains,  in  the  way  supposed  by  some  people, 
is  simply  absurd,  — a  notion  that  ignorance  has  handed 
down  to  us  from  the  barbarous  ages  of  the  past.  In 
the  Bible  (Jer.  viii.  17)  God  is  said  to  have  threatened 
to  send  among  the  Jews  “  serpents  ”  and  “  cockatrices  ” 
to  bite  them,  which  they  “could  not  charm.”  And  the 
Hebrew  “  Chober translated  in  Psalms  lviii.  4,  “  charm¬ 
er,”  comes  from  a  root  that  signifies  to  join ,  to  put 
together  certain  unintelligible  words  which  formed  the 
charm  or  spell ;  and  the  Methodist  commentator,  Dr. 
Adam  Clarke,  gives  an  account  of  a  “charmer”  he  met 
with  who  had  the  reputation  of  curing  diseases  by 
repeating  the  following  gibberish.  The  “charmer” 
was  about  to  engage  in  the  cure  of  a  horse  affected 
with  farcin.  With  a  grave  countenance,  he  stood  before 
the  beast,  and,  taking  off  his  hat,  he  muttered  these 
words  : 

“  Murry  fin  a  lift  cree, 

Murry  fin  a  liss  cree, 

Ard  fin  derio  dhoo, 

Murry  fin  firey  fee, 

Murry  fin  elph  yew.” 

This  charm,  he  said,  had  been  taught  to  him  by  a 
woman  ;  and,  to  be  successful,  it  must  be  communicated 
by  one  of  the  opposite  sex,  and  the  ceremony  had  to  be 
gone  through  with  nine  mornings  in  succession  before 
breakfast  ! 

The  term  “charm”  is  used  to  designate  some  physi¬ 
cal  body  worn  about  the  person  to  keep  off  the  witches 
or  disease.  A.  J.  Davis  recommends  a  “horse  chest¬ 
nut”  to  be  carried  in  the  pocket  for  the  cure  of  piles. 
—  Her.  of  Health,  p.  247. 


70 


IDEOLOGY. 


People  have  been  known  to  wear  pieces  of  coin  about 
the  neck  as  a  charm  against  scrofula,  and  the  same 
credulity ,  ignorance ,  and  cupidity  often  advertise  reme¬ 
dies  to  be  carried  in  the  pocket  as  a  reliable  preventive 
of  small-pox  !  and  ignorant  people  enough  are  found 
scared  at  the  name  of  this  disease  to  support  those 
misnamed  “doctors”  who  have  engaged  in  this  busi¬ 
ness.  It  was  an  ancient  saying  that  “where  the  dead 
carcass  is,  there  will  the  foul  birds  be  gathered  together.” 
It  is  the  ignorance  of  the  people  upon  which  the  “  car¬ 
rion  crows  ”  feed. 

We  are  told  that  “in  fascination  a  force  passes,  as 
from  a  magnet  to  a  needle;  ”  and  so  we  are  told  that 
this  “ force ”  may  be  communicated  to  pills,  and  to 
paper,  and  a  regular  business  carried  on  in  the  manu¬ 
facture  of  “magnetizing  pills  and  paper”!  Here  let 
me  state  again  the  point  to  which  I  beg  the  reader’s 
attention.  It  is  this  :  — 

In  no  case  has  any  result  ever  been  produced  by  the 
“charm,”  or  by  “magnetized  paper,”  where  there  was 
neither  faith ,  nor  hope ,  nor  fear  in  the  mind,  or  in  the 
beast  on  which  the  charm  was  exerted.  No  such  cases 
are  upon  record,  none  have  ever  been  known.  Reptiles 
and  insects  may  be  trained  to  obey  the  laws  of  associa¬ 
tion,  and  so  may  beasts  be  controlled  by  feart  and 
learned  certain  habits  ;  and  in  this  way  we  may  account 
for  whatever  power  man  has  ever  exercised  over  the 
brute  creation.  By  these  laws  of  association  and  mem¬ 
ory  the  ox  knows  his  own,  and  the  dog  recognizes  the 
track  of  his  master ;  and,  if  any  human  being  ever  was 
really  “charmed  by  a  snake,”  I  am  sure  that  such  a 
result  must  have  come  on  through  the  sense  of  fear. 
Certainly  you  would  not  say  it  was  from  a  sense  of 
the  beautiful. 


FASCINATION. 


7 1 


Extravagant  claims  were  set  up  some  years  since  by 
parties  who  proclaimed  themselves  as  discoverers  of  a 
“  new  science,  as  different  from  mesmerism  as  light  is 
from  darkness,”  and  which  they  called  “Electro-Biol¬ 
ogy”  and  “Electrical  Psychology.”  But  the  results, 
mental  and  nervous,  all  of  them  produced,  as  it  was  said, 
“on  persons  wide  awake,”  by  the  process  known  under 
these  terms,  were  nothing  more  nor  less  than  illusions , 
produced  by  ideas  developed  in  the  minds  of  a  class  of 
people  by  the  dictum  of  the  operators. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


REVIVALS  OF  RELIGION. 

As  I  have  never  had  any  reasons  for  regretting  the 
score  of  years  I  was  employed  by  Methodism  for  “get¬ 
ting  up  ”  religious  epidemics,  I  do  not  see  why  I  may 
not  tell  my  own  “experience”  in  this  regard.  This 
“telling  one’s  experience”  is  a  fundamental  thing 
among  the  Baptists  and  some  other  sects  of  the  total 
depravity  order.  Indeed,  there  is  no  baptism,  no  admis¬ 
sion  into  the  church,  without  an  experience  told  in  some 
form  by  each  convert.  And,  then,  my  experience  in 
Christianity’s  twin  sister,  modern  mediumship,  extends 
back  to  the  “  haunted  house  ”  phenomena.  It  is  plain 
enough  that  this  modern  movement  has  all  the  elements 
of  a  genuine  revival,  as  it  exceeds  by  far  all  the  panics 
that  have  ever  occurred,  in  the  mysteriousness  of  its 
origin,  in  the  power  of  its  demonstrations ,  and,  being- 
sustained  by  religious  bigotry  and  intolerance,  may 
remain  for  some  years  to  come,  for  it  is  hard  to  over¬ 
throw.  But  it  is  not  impregnable.  It  has  got  to  come 
down  eventually,  and  at  no  distant  day.  “Coming- 
events  cast  their  shadows  before,”  and  many  now  living 
will  see  the  time  when  Infidels  and  Atheists  will  enjoy 
the  right  of  which  we  are  speaking. 

But  as  to  this  matter  of  personal  experience,  or  faith , 
in  the  mediumistic  revelations,  it  is  like  one’s  own 


72 


REVIVALS  OF  RELIGION. 


73 


garment,  which  he  may  wear  for  a  time,  and  then  lay 
aside  for  another.  One’s  experience,  past  or  present, 
should  always  be  treated  as  private  property.  If  your 
experience  satisfies  you,  why  should  I  complain  ?  Here 
is  one  who  tells  me  that  he  saw  the  Devil  in  his  bed¬ 
room  last  night,  and  he  knows  it  was  the  old  boss  Devil, 
because  he  saw  his  cloven  foot ;  and,  besides,  he  actually 
smelt  the  fire  and  brimstone.  That  is  his  experience, 
and  a  matter  never  to  be  questioned.  My  experience 
is  for  me  ;  yours  is  for  you.  Hence  it  is  no  part  of  my 
design  to  ignore  or  to  find  any  fault  with  the  experi¬ 
ence  of  another.  As  there  is  “  no  disputing  of  taste,” 
so  there  can  be  none  of  one’s  experience.  You  have  a 
stomach  and  a  digestion  of  your  own,  while  you  may 
be  ignorant  of  the  most  essential  laws  of  nutrition,  and 
now  in  bad  health  in  consequence  of  your  want  of 
hygienic  information.  In  such  a  conclusion,  or  narra¬ 
tive,  my  hygienic  experience  might  assist  some  suffering 
invalid.  Similar  assistance  we  are  all  of  us  constantly 
giving  and  receiving  more  or  less  of. 

Certainly,  no  Christian  can  now  pretend  to  deny  that 
“  Moses  and  the  prophets,”  Jesus  and  his  apostles,  were 
each  of  them,  as  are  each  of  the  writers  of  the  Bible, 
mediums ,  by  and  through  whom  God  has  revealed  his 
will  to  mankind.  This  is  ancient  mediumism ,  and  in 
this  phraseology  the  modern  form  copies  after  the  old ; 
and  hence  we  have  “  Divine  Revelations  to  mankind, 
by  and  through  A.  J.  Davis,  the  Poughkeepsie  seer  and 
clairvoyant.”  Thus  we  find  that  the  motive-power  in 
all  forms  of  mediumism,  ancient  and  modern,  is  faith. 
“Without  faith,”  says  Christianity,  “it  is  impossible  to 
please  God.”  Without  faith,  mediumistic  revelations 
amount  to  nothing.  We  are  justified  and  “saved  by 
faith.” 


7  4 


IDEOLOGY. 


In  becoming  a  Methodist  preacher  I  became,  in  that 
behalf,  a  medium  between  God  and  man,  —  a  function 
which  I  can  now  see  was  like  that  of  Moses  and  of 
Jesus,  self -assumed ,  and  for  which  there  was  no  author¬ 
ity  except  what  was  found  in  my  faith.  Twice  the 
bishop’s  hands  were  laid  upon  my  head,  by  which  it 
was  said  I  was  “  ordained  to  the  work  and  the  office 
of  a  deacon  and  an  elder  in  the  church  of  God.”  The 
function  of  my  mediumship  was  to  teach  people  what 
they  must  believe,  and  to  threaten  the  unbeliever  with 
the  wrath  of  God  and  the  vengeance  of  an  eternal  hell. 
Although  it  is  now  sixty  years  since  I  commenced  that 
mediumistic  career,  I  have  still  among  my  old  papers 
diplomas  given  me  at  my  “  ordination  ”  by  the  authority 
of  the  church. 

I  was  once  asked  why  I  had  not  surrendered  these 
parchments  to  the  church,  seeing  that  I  had  left  it. 
To  which  my  reply  was,  that  no  one  had  demanded  the 
surrender  of  my  diplomas ;  but  I  would  give  them  to 
querist  if  they  would  be  of  any  use  to  him,  as  I  con¬ 
sidered  them  of  no  use  whatever  to  me,  —  unless,  indeed, 
his  misrepresentations  of  my  character  while  a  member 
of  the  church  should  render  them  necessary  in  confuting 
the  slanders  which  he  or  his  brethren  in  the  church 
should  utter  against  me.  As  my  standing  among  them 
had  always  been  good,  my  integrity  of  character  had 
never  been  impeached. 

I  can  say,  truthfully,  that  I  bear  no  ill-will  against 
Methodists,  nor  against  Christians,  albeit  I  do  not  be¬ 
lieve  it  can  be  proved  by  the  Bible  that  Jesus  actually 
died  while  on  the  cross,  nor  that  “  revivals,”  so-called, 
are  anything  more  or  less  than  human  results,  such  as 
are  common  in  panics  and  all  purely  mental  epidemics. 


REVIVALS  OF  RELIGION. 


75 


But  as  to  what  is  meant  by  such  terms  as  “  conviction 
of  sin,”  “ conversion,”  “prayer,”  “faith,”  and  “the 
love  of  God  shed  abroad  in  the  heart,”  I  know  better 
by  far  than  I  could  now  be  told  by  any  revival  preacher. 

I,  too,  have  had  the  “witness  of  the  spirit,”  have 
had  a  “call  from  the  Holy  Ghost  to  the  work  of  the 
Christian  ministry.”  For  many  years  I  was  a  travelling 
preacher  and  a  member  of  the  New  England  Annual 
Conference,  and  revivals  followed  in  my  wake  through¬ 
out  the  New  England  States,  from  1820  to  1840.  I 
know  what  kind  of  machinery  there  is  in  “class”  and 
“band  meetings,”  in  “love  feasts,”  “four  days’  meet¬ 
ings,”  and  those  religious  picnics  called  camp-meetings. 
I  have  been  there,  and  testify  of  what  I  have  myself 
seen  and  heard. 

And  now,  when  I  say  that  I  was  myself  first  victim¬ 
ized  by  a  Methodist  revival,  I  must  not  be  understood 
as  expressing  any  regret  in  view  of  my  past  experiences. 
My  creed  is  instruction  from  the  past.  Scientific  men 
have  said  to  me,  that  they  should  have  considered  it  of 
vast  advantage  if  they  could  have  had  my  opportunities 
of  observation  in  those  epidemics  called  “  revivals  of 
religion.”  So  now,  after  an  experience  of  half  a  cen¬ 
tury  in  this  field,  a  man  should  be  counted  dull  and 
shallow  indeed  if  he  did  not  learn  something  of  those 
conditions  and  forces  by  which  all  revivals  are  “  got  up.” 
And  what  I  have  myself  witnessed  may  I  not  relate  ? 
Why  not  ?  I  have  been  there ;  have  been  upon  the 
battle-field  ;  have  been  through  the  wars  ;  have  led  my 
regiment  successfully  through  many  a  campaign. 

And,  as  I  look  back  and  call  to  mind  the  names  of 
those  of  my  “converts”  who  have  been  discharged 
from  this  warfare  and  passed  to  their  rest  in  the  grave, 


76 


IDEOLOGY. 


I  am  sure  that  no  account  which  I  can  give  of  those 
exciting  scenes  will  in  any  way  disturb  their  repose. 
I  have  no  evil  report  to  make  either  of  the  living  or  the 
dead.  In  all  the  revivals  in  which  I  was  engaged,  I 
acted  from  honest  motives,  as  I  have  continued  to  do 
from  that  period  to  the  present ;  and  as  I  was  not, 
could  not  be,  a  hypocrite,  so  I  received  the  truth,  by 
which  my  mind  expanded  from  the  fogs  of  theology ; 
and,  similarly  as  I  outgrew  the  coat  I  wore  when  a  little 
boy,  so  have  I  spontaneously  outgrown  the  silly  notions 
imparted  to  me  when  a  child,  in  respect  to  a  jealous, 
vindictive  God  and  his  disappointment  in  man’s  creation. 

It  was  these  ideas  which  I  addressed  to  the  faith , 
the  hopes ,  and  the  fears  of  my  audiences,  that  gave  me 
power  for  getting  up  revivals.  Bear  this  in  mind : 
Revivals  are  never  known  where  the  people  are  not 
made  to  believe  in  an  angry  God,  who  punishes  sinners 
eternally  in  hell-fire  for  his  own  glory.  Nay,  these 
revivals  are  never  got  up  where  people  are  not  first 
made  to  believe  in  a  huge  boss  Devil,  who  goeth  about 
seeking  whom  he  may  devour  ;  and  faith  in  Jesus  is  not 
more  essential  than  a  belief  in  this  old,  ugly  Devil. 
Nor  was  any  revival  ever  heard  of  where  these  peculiar 
ideas  of  a  failure  in  God’s  creation,  and  a  quasi- omni¬ 
present  Devil,  with  his  eternal  hell  of  fire  and  brim¬ 
stone,  were  not  preached,  sung,  and  prayed  into  the 
people. 

In  this  way  their  hopes  and  fears  in  respect  to  another 
world  are  wrought  upon,  until  one  or  more  persons  are 
so  much  overcome  that  they  fall  down,  they  weep,  they 
pray,  and  manifest  all  those  nervous  phenomena  peculiar 
to  epidemics.  Then  it  is,  when  one  person  becomes 
impressed,  the  sight  of  this  person  spreads  the  contagion 


REVIVALS  OF  RELIGION. 


77 


by  the  well-known  laws  of  sympathetic  imitation,  so 
thoroughly  illustrated  in  all  mental  epidemics.  So  as 
the  number  increases,  the  epidemic  acquires  power. 
The  mental  epidemic  considered  as  a  fire,  it  is  easy  to 
see  how  the  appropriate  fuel  increases  the  flames.  The 
increase  of  the  blaze  upon  the  hard  steel  increases  its 
heat,  and  the  hotter  the  fire  the  more  inte7ise  and  wide¬ 
spread  the  epidemic  becomes,  until,  by  the  repetition  of 
the  several  ideas,  the  hardest  granite  yields  and  be¬ 
comes  fused  in  the  general  mass. 

These  phenomena  followed  the  first  sermon  I  ever 
preached.  This  was  June  9th,  1820,  in  Walpole,  Mas¬ 
sachusetts.  The  audience  consisted  principally  of 
young  people,  about  every  one  of  whom  were  “  struck 
down,”  as  it  was  said,  “  by  the  power  of  God.”  They  fell 
upon  the  floor,  convulsed  with  emotions  of  fear,  crying 
to  God  to  “have  mercy  on  their  souls.”  Their  fears 
had  been  excited  by  my  sermon,  in  which  I  had  dwelt 
upon  God’s  wrath  and  their  danger  of  eternal  damna¬ 
tion. 

August  30th,  1820,  I  opened  my  Methodist  battery 
upon  the  people  of  Cape  Cod.  It  was  in  the  chapel  at 
Chatham.  My  text  was:  “For  the  great  day  of  his 
wrath  is  come,  and  who  shall  be  able  to  stand?” — Rev. 
vi.  17.  My  object  was  to  make  my  audience  realize 
what  I  myself  had  been  taught  to  believe,  viz.,  that  God 
was  angry  with  them  for  their  sins,  and  that  unless 
they  adopted  my  views  of  God,  of  Jesus,  and  of  hell, 
they  were  in  danger  of  hell-fire.  My  sermon  was 
announced  at  the  usual  hour  in  the  morning,  but  our 
meeting  did  not  break  up  or  disperse  until  nightfall ; 
and  I  had  not  spoken  more  than  twenty  minutes  before 
the  audience  which  filled  the  church  was  in  a  general 


78 


IDEOLOGY. 


uproar.  I  left  the  pulpit,  and,  taking  my  stand  in  the 
altar  as  usual,  I  invited  the  “mourners  forward  for 
prayers;”  whereupon  there  followed  a  scene  which  it 
is  difficult  to  describe.  In  a  few  moments  the  altar 
and  the  aisles  were  crowded  with  people,  kneeling,  and 
prostrated  upon  their  faces,  weeping,  praying,  and  in  a 
frenzy  of  tumultuous  excitement.  In  this  number  I 
beheld  the  tender  youth,  husbands  and  their  wives, 
parents  and  children,  the  old  and  gray-headed,  and 
many  a  hardy  seaman  of  that  numerous  class  on  the 
Cape  whose  courage  and  hardihood  are  far-famed  the 
world  over.  Together,  this  mixed  multitude  remained 
in  indistinguishable  confusion,  praying,  shouting,  groan¬ 
ing,  and  wringing  their  hands  in  an  agony  of  pain. 

When  I  use  the  word  “confusion”  in  this  connection, 
I  mean  it  to  signify  the  aspect  of  the  scene  to  a  mere 
spectator.  Those  engaged  in  it  uttered  his  or  her 
prayer  as  if  there  were  but  one  person  in  the  house, 
while  the  entire  company  continued  to  vociferate  their 
ejaculations  and  hymns  of  joy,  as  I  have  said,  from 
morning  till  sundown.  During  that  time  there  occurred 
in  that  melee  all  those  extremes  of  anguish  and  de¬ 
spair,  and  also  of  faith  and  hope  and  joy,  common  in 
all  powerful  religious  excitements.  Some  of  the  con¬ 
verts  became  ecstatic  in  the  height  of  their  joy  ;  and 
one  little  girl  about  ten  or  eleven  years  old,  in  the 
bewilderment  of  her  emotions,  sprang  up  with  a  shout 
of  delight,  and  throwing  her  arms  around  my  neck, 
showered  upon  me  blessings  unnumbered  for  what  she 
said  God  had  done  through  me  for  her  soul.  There 
was  a  pathos  and  a  solemnity  in  all  that  occurred,  which 
I  am  sure  was  unfeigned,  and  which  must  have  been 
witnessed  in  order  to  be  duly  appreciated. 


REVIVALS  OF  RELIGION. 


79 


As  the  evening  approached,  I  urged  the  people  to 
leave  and  seek  their  homes  for  some  refreshments,  and, 
as  they  left  the  church  and  wandered  over  the  fields  to 
their  houses,  some  of  them  stopped  by  the  way,  and, 
throwing  themselves  upon  the  ground,  repeated  their 
petitions  to  God  for  mercy,  while  others  sang  hymns  of 
praise  and  thanksgiving. 

The  meeting  was,  I  may  say,  adjourned  to  the  house 
of  Reuben  Ryder,  a  short  distance  from  the  church, 
where  at  the  usual  hour  I  had  the  house  as  full  of  peo¬ 
ple  as  it  could  be.  My  first  attempt  was  to  finish  the 
sermon  which  had  been  interrupted  in  the  morning ; 
but,  as  before,  I  had  spoken  but  a  short  time,  when  I 
found  quite  a  number  upon  the  floor,  and  their  cries, 
groans,  and  prayers  were  so  incessant  that  my  voice 
could  not  be  heard. 

And  I  well  remember  the  case  of  two  young  ladies 
from  Boston,  by  the  name  of  Oliver,  who  happened  to 
be  present  that  evening.  They  were  “  struck  down,” 
it  was  said,  “by  the  power  of  God,”  and  so  much  bewil¬ 
dered  by  the  excitement  that  they  continued  to  cry, 
while  wringing  their  hands  in  agony,  —  “O  dear,  suzzy 
a  day  !  O  dear,  suzzy  a  day  !  O  dear,  suzzy  a  day  !  ” 
And  this  was  all  the  prayer  which  I  heard  from  their 
lips  until  they  declared  their  “sins  forgiven,”  and  their 
souls  filled  with  “joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory.” 

The  meeting  was  prolonged  till  two  o’clock  the  next 
•morning,  and  then  some  were  scarcely  willing  to  leave, 
so  dear  had  the  associations  become  to  them,  rendered 
so  by  the  exercises  through  which  they  had  passed. 
The  revival  thus  commenced  continued  for  some  time, 
and  I  could  give  the  names  of  citizens  now  living  in 
Chatham,  Mass.,  who  witnessed  and  took  part  in  the 
scenes  I  have  described. 


8o 


IDEOLOGY. 


October  5th,  1820,  I  opened  upon  "the  young  peo¬ 
ple  of  a  village  then  known  as  Yarmouth  Port,  on  the 
Cape.  The  announcement  was  made  that  it  was  "  a 
youth  ”  that  was  to  preach  that  night,  and,  of  course,  it 
drew  out  a  house-full  of  people.  The  meeting  was  held 
in  the  house  of  a  "brother  Edson, *  a  cabinet-maker  by 
trade,  and  I  have  now  a  beautiful  little  travelling-trunk 
he  made  for  me,  and  the  more  readily,  perhaps,  because 
his  own  little  daughter  was  among  the  "converts”  that 
I  made  that  evening.  This  revival  may  be  said  to  have 
been  more  than  usually  sudden  and  spasmodic.  Great, 
indeed,  was  the  rejoicing  manifested  among  the  parents, 
who,  within  the  space  of  a  few  hours,  had  seen  their 
children,  as  they  really  believed,  "  soundly  converted  to 
God,”  they  had  seen  their  "loved  ones,”  for  whose 
"salvation  ”  they  had  been  earnestly  praying  ever  since 
they  were  born,  upon  their  knees  in  prayer  at  my  bid¬ 
ding  ;  and  they  had  no  doubt  whatever  but  that  the 
young  minister  had  been  "raised  up”  and  sent  forth  to 
"preach”  hell-fire  and  eternal  damnation,  precisely  as 
they  had  heard  those  dogmas  proclaimed  by  me  at  that 
meeting. 

Out  of  thirty-five  or  forty  "  converts  ”  in  that  revival, 
there  was  not  one  man  included :  they  were  all  young 
misses  about  the  age  of  the  preacher ;  and  in  numerous 
other  revivals  "got  up  ”  by  ministers  of  different  ages  I 
have  noticed  a  similar  characteristic  in  the  results,  — 
human  characteristics  easily  accounted  for.  But  this 
revival  was  announced  in  Zion  s  Herald ,  the  Method¬ 
ist  paper  of  Boston,  as  a  "glorious  work  of  God, 
broke  out  on  Cape  Cod,  under  the  preaching  of  Brother 
Sunderland,  a  youth  of  nineteen.”  This  announcement, 
and  the  6clat  that  resulted  from  my  preaching  on  the 


REVIVALS  OF  RELIGION. 


8 1 


Cape,  made  the  name  of  the  “youthful  revivalist”  a 
“tower  of  strength  ”  in  the  ranks  of  Methodism.  And 
I  had  only  to  show  my  presence  in  any  given  locality 
as  the  signal  of  God’s  presence,  and  there  followed  “  a 
time  of  refreshing  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord.” 

March  17,  1824,  a  series  of  most  extraordinary  “mani¬ 
festations  ”  occurred  during  my  revival  in  a  place  on 
the  Cape  called  Bass  River,  some  of  which  I  will  now 
relate.  I  held  a  meeting  at  the  house  of  Capt.  Isaiah 
Baker.  This  good  man  and  his  excellent  wife  are  now 
dead.  I  made  their  house  my  home,  and  remember 
with  gratitude  their  kindness  to  me.  Their  little  daugh¬ 
ter,  a  subject  of  the  revival,  attracted  a  good  deal  of 
attention.  She  afterwards  married  Mr.  R.  R.  Crosby, 
and  now  resides  in  Boston,  —  a  most  excellent  woman, 
—  and  she  has  lived  long  enough  to  find  out  the  false¬ 
hood  of  these  old  ecclesiastical  notions  which  I  taught 
her  in  her  childhood  in  respect  to  God  and  the  hell  he 
had  prepared  for  those  who  differed  from  me  in  my 
notions  of  Jesus  and  the  Bible. 

There  were  two  young  men,  by  the  name  of  Crowell, 
who  attended  that  day,  and  with  whom  I  conversed 
freely  on  the  state  of  their  souls.  In  thus  referring  to 
the  conversation  which  all  revival  ministers  are  in  the 
habit  of  having  with  those  whom  they  consider  “  sin¬ 
ners,”  I  wish  to  put  on  record  the  convictions  which 
age  and  reflection  have  forced  upon  my  mind.  What 
I  have  to  say  is  this,  namely,  that  most  of  all  such 
conversations  are  manifestly  a  breach  of  good  manners. 
To  approach  an  entire  stranger  with  this  abrupt  ques¬ 
tion,  “  Do  you  enjoy  religion  ?  ”  is  a  piece  of  impudence 
of  which  none  but  a  fanatic  or  a  revival  preacher  could 
be  guilty.  The  proper  answer  in  such  cases  would  be : 


82 


IDEOLOGY. 


“It  is  none  of  your  business  what  I  enjoy.”  It  would 
be  precisely  the  same  if  the  revivalist  were  to  approach 
a  stranger  with  this  interrogatory,  namely,  “  Are  you 
truthful  ?  Are  you  honest  ?  ”  Religion  seems  to  me 
to  be  a  matter  entirely  your  own  business,  and  for  any 
fanatic  to  attempt  to  penetrate  into  that  privacy  of 
your  inmost  nature  may  be  set  down,  as  it  now  seems 
to  me,  as  the  height  of  impertinence. 

The  meeting  at  Capt.  Isaiah  Baker’s  continued  during 
the  day,  and  toward  night  the  two  young  men  I  have 
referred  to  left  and  went  to  their  shop,  where  they 
commenced  work  at  shoemaking.  They  had  scarcely 
taken  their  seats  when  they  were  seized,  as  it  was  said, 
by  “the  power  of  God,”  and,  making  an  outcry,  a  mes¬ 
senger  came  immediately  to  me  with  the  news.  Without 
any  delay  I  repaired  to  the  shop,  where  I  found  a 
curious  state  of  things,  indeed.  Both  of  these  men 
were  transfixed  upon  their  seats,  unable  to  move  a 
muscle.  Each  of  them  had  his  work  upon  his  knee, 

and  his  tools  in  his  hands ;  but  never  a  stitch  could 

* 

they  take,  nor  could  they  relax  their  hold  upon  their 
tools  ! 

And,  while  thus  paralyzed  in  their  limbs,  they  cried 
aloud  for  mercy.  Their  vociferations  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  neighbors;  and  one  man,  on  venturing 
inside  the  shop  to  ascertain  what  the  matter  could  be, 
was  struck  stiff  upon  the  floor  the  moment  he  entered 
the  door !  This  state  of  things  was  continued  until 
prayers  had  been  offered  for  these  “sinners,”  and, 
believing  themselves  converted,  they  dropped  their 
unfinished  work,  and  made  their  way  to  the  meeting 
appointed  for  that  evening. 

The  next  Sunday,  a  lady  who  had  been  “  converted  ” 


REVIVALS  OF  RELIGION. 


83 


during  the  precedmg  week,  “  inspired  ”  by  the  revival 
mania,  went  to  the  Orthodox  church  in  Bass  River,  and, 
as  the  minister  and  people  were  leaving  after  the  morn¬ 
ing  service,  she  posted  herself  in  front  of  the  house  near 
the  door,  and  commenced  a  revival  harangue,  addressed 
to  the  minister  and  his  flock.  As  it  was  well  known 
that  Orthodox  sects  do  not  allow  any  such  ministra¬ 
tions  from  females  in  the  church  or  outside  of  it,  as 
may  well  be  supposed  this  outburst  produced  a  good 
deal  of  consternation  ;  but,  nothing  daunted,  the  “young 
convert  ”  exhausted  her  zeal  in  denunciations  and 
threats  of  God’s  wrath  and  hell-fire  against  all  hardened 
sinners  and  “formal  professors  ”  of  religion. 

These  may  be  taken  as  specimens  of  the  phenomena, 
all  of  them  the  results  of  faith  in  the  revival  dogmas  I 
proclaimed,  and  such  as  followed  my  preaching  for 
many  years.  My  experience  in  this  behalf  has  been 
of  vast  account  in  the  field  of  science  and  the  trance, 
which  I  have  made  it  the  business  of  my  life  to  study. 
The  phenomena  were  real ;  but  I  do  not  now  suppose 
they  were  produced  by  “the  Holy  Spirit,”  as  I  did 
then.  Precisely  similar  phenomena  now  occur  under 
the  auspices  of  mediumism,  which  are  attributed  to 
“spirits”  of  the  dead,  and  even  to  the  old  boss  Devil 
himself ! 

At  the  Annual  Conference  of  1824  I  was  “stationed” 
at  Dorchester,  Mass.  The  meeting-house  there  was 
constructed  out  of  an  old  barn.  It  had  been  “  fitted 
up  ”  for  a  church  by  an  elderly  Frenchman,  with  whom 
I  boarded.  His  name  was  Anthony  Otheman,  and, 
albeit  he  was  a  good  Methodist,  yet  I  often  saw  the 
old  man  so  much  overcome  with  his  wine  that  he 
sometimes  became  very  much  “obfuscated”  in  “saying 
grace  ”  at  his  table. 


84 


IDEOLOGY. 


During  my  year  in  Dorchester,  I  found  the  people 
all  ready  for  my  “revival  ”  dogmas,  and  a  hundred  con¬ 
verts  were  added  to  the  church,  and  two  of  this  num¬ 
ber  became  “ministers  of  the  gospel.”  Daniel  I. 
Robinson  went  off  into  the  vagaries  of  Millerism  ;  and 
Edward  Otheman,  the  youngest  son  of  the  old  gentle¬ 
man  before  named,  graduated  at  Brown  University  in 
1830,  and  is,  I  believe,  still  living. 

This  revival  became  somewhat  distinguished  by 
“  persecution.”  The  opposition  was  carried  on  princi¬ 
pally  by  throwing  stones  at  the  “revival  minister”  in 
the  street,  and  hurling  eggs  and  filth  at  his  head  while 
in  the  pulpit.  For  these  offences  two  young  men  were 
indicted,  tried,  and  convicted  at  the  Court  of  Common 
Pleas  held  in  Dedham,  April  30,  1825.  At  the  trial 
the  minister  was  put  upon  the  stand  ;  and  Mr.  Rich¬ 
ardson,  counsel  for  the  defense,  asked  him  where  he  got 
his  qualifications  for  the  ministry  ?  And  he  seemed 
somewhat  confounded  when  he  was  told  that  those 
qualifications  “were  the  gift  of  God,  without  whose 
authority  no  one  could  be  a  successful  minister  of  the 
gospel.” 

The  phenomena  I  have  now  described  followed  my 
preaching.  But  such  revivals  as  I  had  fifty  years  ago 
are  now  “few  and  far  between,”  except  in  certain 
localities  where  the  lights  of  science  have  never  shone. 
In  New  England  and  other  parts  of  the  world,  where 
the  phenomena  of  Ideology,  or  modern  mediumship, 
have  been  witnessed,  the  “revival  ”  dogmas  are  held  at 
a  damaging  discount.  And  it  is  in  this  state  of  things 
that  we  find  the  reasons  for  “the  Christian  Alliances  ” 
and  “the  Young  Men’s  Christian  Associations.”  These 
combinations  are  for  “sugaring  the  pill.”  In  “the 


REVIVALS  OF  RELIGION. 


85 


praise  meetings  ”  and  the  like,  now  so  much  patronized, 
the  policy  is  to  keep  the  offensive  dogmas  out  of  sight, 
and  to  have  the  old  boss  Devil  take  a  back  seat  ! 

In  the  beginning  of  Methodism,  what  was  called  “  the 
power  of  God  ”  was  greater  than  at  the  present  time  ; 
and  twenty  years  ago  the  phenomena  which  may  be 
classed  under  the  term  of  the  mystic  rap  were  certainly 
more  wonderful  than  they  are  now  known  to  be  any¬ 
where.  The  reason  for  this  relapse  in  mystical  phe¬ 
nomena  may  be  the  want  of  faith  and  a  lively  interest 
in  their  occurrence. 

The  trances,  spasms,  and  numerous  nervous  phenom¬ 
ena  that  characterized  my  preaching  sixty  years  ago 
were  far  beyond  anything  of  the  kind  at  the  present 
time.  Similar  results  were  witnessed  eighty-five  years 
ago  in  the  “Kentucky  Revival.”  Also  in  1745  they 
were  common  in  New  England,  among  the  Congrega- 
tionalists,  under  the  preaching  of  Jonathan  Edwards 
and  others ;  as  they  were  also  in  later  times  under  the 
preaching  of  George  Whitfield  and  the  early  Method¬ 
ists.  The  similar  phenomena  among  the  Presbyterians 
in  Kentucky  were  common  indeed  among  the  early 
Quakers  in  the  days  of  George  Fox.  So  it  has  often 
seemed  to  me  that  the  nervous  phenomena  character¬ 
istic  of  modern  mediumism  renders  this  movement  a 
second  edition  of  old-fashioned  Methodism,  bating  the 
revival  dogmas  of  an  angry  God  and  an  old  boss  Devil. 

I  may  refer  to  it  as  an  interesting  fact  in  this  connec¬ 
tion,  that,  since  commencing  this  narrative  of  my  expe¬ 
rience  in  revivals,  I  have  received  a  number  of  letters 
from  two  Methodist  ministers  (one  of  whom  I  had 
never  seen),  both  of  them  earnestly  urging  me  down¬ 
wards  again,  into  the  support  of  their  notions  respecting 


86 


IDEOLOGY. 


Gocl  and  hell-fire  !  And,  as  a  specimen  of  their  labors  in 
my  behalf,  I  give  the  following  :  — 

Brookfield,  Mass.,  March  3,  1871. 

Laroy  Sunderland,  Dear  Sir :  — 

Will  you  allow  the  intrusion  of  a  stranger  ?  You  may  have 
seen  my  signature  in  the  Index.  One  of  the  earlier  recol¬ 
lections  of  my  life  is  the  noble  stand  you  took,  when  in  the 
Methodist  Church,  against  the  encroachments  of  slavery. 
Ah  !  there  are  many  among  our  older  members  who  remem¬ 
ber  those  days,  and  remember  you  as  the  valiant  knight  that 
upon  the  walls  of  Zion  (when  editor  of  the  Zion's  Watchman , 
New  York,  from  1835  to  1842)  wrestled  with  the  great  wrong, 
who  fervently  sympathized  with  you  in  your  views,  and  still 
more  as  persecuted  by  the  haughty  conservatism  of  that  day, 
and  who  still  unfeignedly  mourn  your  lapse  from  your  earlier 
faith,  the  disappointment  of  your  earlier  promise. 

Quite  a  number  of  years  ago  t  read  a  sermon  (printed  in 
1830)  by  Laroy  Sunderland,  on  the  text,  “  My  spirit  shall 
not  always  strive  with  man.”  I  remember  well  its  terrific 
peroration,  —  the  sinner  being  admonished  that,  unless  he 
speedily  repented,  he  would  learn  beneath  eternal  woe. 
What  God  meant  when  he  said,  “  My  spirit  shall  not  always 
strive  with  man,”  I  suppose  you  would  not  deny  that  the 
class  you  had  in  your  mind’s  eye,  when  these  burning  words 
were  uttered,  words  that  will  never  be  blotted  out,  is  the  one 
you  now  represent;  so  that  you  now  stand  condemned  by  the 
words  of  your  own  mouth.  Ah  !  which  was  right,  —  the  Laroy 
Sunderland  of  1830,  who  preached  that  sermon,  or  the  Laroy 
Sunderland  of  to-day,  without  a  Saviour,  with  no  lively  hope 
of  an  inheritance  beyond  the  grave  ?  Which  the  happier,  the 
most  useful  ?  Think  of  the  shining  seat  of  influence  you 
now  would  have  occupied  in  the  church  !  How  God  would 
have  honored  you  ! 

Yours  truly, 

Rev.  R.  H.  Howard. 

It  may  be  said  to  have  been  quite  modest  in  this 
man,  so  much  my  junior  in  years,  and,  I  may  add,  my 
junior  in  “ revival”  experience,  that  he  should  be  so 


REVIVALS  OF  RELIGION. 


87 


ready  to  hand  me  over  to  the  Devil,  as  beyond  the  mercy 
of  the  Infinite  !  But,  indeed,  I  need  not  be  surprised: 
such  is  Christian  charity  !  And  here  is  a  question  I 
put  to  this  minister,  but  one  which  he  has  not  answered 
to  this  day  :  — 

“  How  am  I  to  account  for  the  fact,  that,  while  you 
believe  in  the  mediumship  of  Moses  and  Jesus, — who 
were  mediums  between  God  and  humanity, — you  de¬ 
nounce  the  mediumship  of  the  present  day  as  the  work 
of  the  Devil  ?  ” 

Says  this  advocate  of  ancient  mediumism :  “  Moses 
and  Paul  were  under  the  control  of  the  Holy  Ghost.” 
They  were,  indeed !  And  how  do  you  know  that  ? 
Did  you  or  any  other  minister  ever  cross-examine  the 
Holy  Ghost  to  find  out  whether  or  not  he  was  present 
when  Moses  declared  himself  a  medium  through  whom 
he  spoke  to  the  people  ?  So,  indeed,  this  question 
embarrasses  the  preacher,  in  respect  to  all  the  writings 
of  both  the  Old  and  New  Testaments.  No  invisible 
witness  can  be  cross-questioned,  nor  regarded  as  com¬ 
petent  to  testify  in  any  court  of  justice. 

Other  points  I  made  with  this  Methodist  preacher, 
one  in  respect  to  the  failure  of  Christianity,  when  the 
faith  of  its  founder  failed  him,  and  he  declared  himself 
“forsaken  of  God.”  Still  another  was,  as  to  what  will 
be  the  fate,  according  to  the  Methodist  creed,  of  all 
who  die  without  faith.  Jesus  (supposing  he  actually 
died  upon  the  cross)  was  not  himself  sent  to  hell, 
although  he  died  without  faith. 

Of  course,  these  points  were  not  answered  by  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Howard,  nor  will  they  ever  be  answered  by 
any  other  “revival”  minister,  however  bravely  he  may 
tell  us  of  his  “standing  up  for  Jesus.” 


88 


IDEOLOGY. 


Mr.  Howard  and  his  class  of  “believers”  need  to 
“ see  the  signs  and  wonders,”  or  the  “jerks,”  as  they 
occur  in  revivals ;  as,  without  these  phenomena,  all  the 
“  means  of  grace,”  the  preaching  and  drilling  by  “exhor¬ 
tations,”  prayers,  and  songs,  are  in  vain.  The  spasms, 
the  number  “converted”  and  “taken  into”  the  church, 
are  all  the  evidences  they  can  refer  to  as  to  what  they 
denominate  u  Holy  Ghost  power.”  And  all  the  “jerks,” 
“whistling,”  “falling,”  “ pulling,”  and  “barking”  exer¬ 
cises  in  revivals  are  so  many  evidences  that  “  God  is  at 
work  among  the  people.” 

The  term  “jerks”  is  perhaps  appropriate  for  desig¬ 
nating  what  may  be  considered  the  type  of  a  class  of 
nervous  phenomena  peculiar  to  revivals  and  spiritual 
epidemics.  And,  as  the  writer  has  been  familiar  with 
this  class  of  phenomena  for  half  a  century,  he  may, 
perhaps,  be  considered  as  speaking  of  “  what  he  knows,” 
—  of  that  which  he  has  himself  “  seen  and  heard.” 

Years  ago  the  people  believed,  more  than  they  do 
now,  in  revival  ideas  of  an  “angry  God,”  “hell-fire,” 
and  an  old  boss  “Devil.”  No  such  “revival  ”  was  ever 
got  up  without  preaching  this  Devil  into  the  people  as 
really  as  Jesus  himself  is  preached.  This  want  of  faith 
explains  the  reason  why  the  “jerks  ”  are  not  witnessed 
nowadays  ;  and  it  should  be  a  burning  shame  to  those 
ministers  who  profess  to  believe  in  the  “Devil  ”  that 
they  cannot  come  it  over  the  people  now,  as  formerly, 
in  getting  up  revivals.  In  my  “revival  days”  the 
converts  were  counted  by  hundreds  in  different  local¬ 
ities,  and  the  “jerks  ”  were,  of  course,  attributed  to  the 
power  of  God.  But  the  twenty  years  from  1820  which 
I  spent  in  this  peculiar  work  of  a  “revival  minister” 
afforded  me  ample  opportunities  for  investigation,  which 


REVIVALS  OF  RELIGION. 


89 


convinced  me  that  “  revivals  ”  are  not  produced  by  the 
'  “  Holy  Ghost,”  nor  by  any  other  ghost,  except  the  ideas 
that  are  preached,  prayed,  and  sung  into  the  people, 
until  these  ideas  become  crystallized  in  the  minds  of 
the  ignorant. 

Look  at  it.  Among  Christians  these  “jerks”  are 
attributed  to  God.  In  witchcraft  they  are  attributed 
to  the  Devil ;  and  in  modern  mediumism  they  are  attri¬ 
buted  to  some  one  long  since  dead.  But  thirty  years 
ago  all  these  phenomena  were  accounted  for  by  Ideol¬ 
ogy.  My  first  book  on  Self-Induction  was  published 
in  1843,  and  clergymen  of  the  highest  respectability 
attended  my  lectures  in  Boston  and  other  places  (such 
as  Hubbard  Winslow,  Edward  T.  Taylor,  and  Bishop 
Brownell  of  the  P.  E.  Church),  and,  repeatedly  wit¬ 
nessing  my  experiments  on  the  human  mind,  they 
pronounced  them  genuine  and  most  wonderful.  This 
opinion  was  also  endorsed  by  parson  Colver,  the  min¬ 
ister  of  Tremont  Temple  in  1847  5  f°r  he  requested  his 
trustees  to  close  the  doors  of  that  church  against  me, 
as  the  phenomena  I  produced  there  took  the  wind 
from  his  sails,  and  broke  up  a  revival  he  was  having ! 
And  where  is  the  Rev.  Henry  Morgan  ?  I  wonder  if 
he  remembers  a  respectful  request  I  made  of  him,  a 
year  or  two  since,  that  he  should  allow  me  his  pulpit 
long  enough  to  show  him,  by  actual  demonstration,  how 
all  “revivals”  are  got  up?  —  a  service  this  which  I 
still  hold  myself  in  readiness  to  give  to  Mr.  Fulton, 
Mr.  Morgan,  or  any  other  minister  who  has  faith  in 
those  spiritual  epidemics  called  “revivals.” 

Pathetism  (see  my  work,  “The  Trance,”)  explains 
how  all  these  strange  nervous  phenomena  occur,  and 
under  so  many  different  names  and  phases  (“  convic- 


9o 


IDEOLOGY. 


tion,”  “conversion,”  the  “trance,”  “jerks,”  etc.). 
Whatever  is  evolved  from  the  human  mind  or  the  ner¬ 
vous  system  is  to  be  accounted  for  by  elements  that 
inhere  in  human  nature ;  and  we  should  observe  that 
all  these  phenomena  are  confined  to  a  certain  tempera¬ 
ment  peculiar  to  a  small  class  of  people.  These  two 
different  terms,  “/reduce”  and  “ z//duce,”  are  used  as 
indicating  the  rationale  of  their  occurrence. 

1.  They  are  produced  by  something  inside  of  the 
mind,  not  outside  of  it.  They  are  induced  by  faith,  by 
ideas,  by  expecting  them,  by  the  force  of  habit,  and 
by  sympathetic  imitation. 

2.  As  to  any  remote  cause,  they  are  produced  by 
suggestion,  or  by  the  laws  of  association  ;  but  never  by 
volition,  as  has  been  supposed.  These  terms  are  often 
misused  synonymously.  But  self-induction  accounts 
for  all  the  nervous  and  mental  changes,  such  as  the 
“trance,”  “conversions,”  etc.,  that  ever  did  or  ever  can 
occur.  We  need  not  go  to  another  world,  nor  leave  the 
confines  of  the  living  organism,  to  find  the  conditions 
and  forms  of  force  by  which  all  these  phenomena  are  in¬ 
duced.  They  cannot  be  said  to  be  produced  at  all,  only 
as  they  have  been  previously  suggested  by  external 
occurrences ;  that  is,  some  ideas  suggested  with  which 
certain  phenomena  are  associated,,  and  whenever  they 
occur  they  are  by  what  I  called  self-induction  many 
years  ago. 

It  is  certainly  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  religious 
press  and  the  pulpits  so  common  among  us  are  all 
“dumb  dogs”  on  this  subject.  They  dare  not  open 
any  door  through  which  the  light  of  science  can  shine 
on  the  rationale  of  getting  up  revivals.  And  here  I 
will  state  explicitly  some  of  the  points  which  I  hold 


REVIVALS  OF  RELIGION. 


91 


myself  in  readiness  to  prove,  —  namely,  the  “  conditions  ” 
upon  which  Jesus  wrought  his  miracles,  and  also  the 
conditions  of  “salvation,”  are  precisely  the  same  as  in 
Pathetism  and  modern  mediumism.  The  motive-power 
in  each  is  faith,  and  this,  we  know,  is  in  the  mind ;  and 
this  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  principles  by  which 
the  mind  is  ever  conscious  of  being  controlled. 

The  phenomena  that  occurred  under  my  preaching 
fifty  years  ago,  and  also  the  “jerks  ”  in  the  Kentucky 
revivals  in  1807,  were  more  extraordinary  than  any¬ 
thing  now  witnessed  in  the  churches,  or  under  the 
auspices  of  that  by  far  the  greatest  “revival”  yet  got 
up,  which  is  modern  mediumism.  And  in  referring  to 
mediumism,  it  is  not  of  the  phenomena  of  which  the 
mystic  rap  is  the  type  that  I  am  speaking,  but  only  of 
nervous  phenomena  under  the  type  of  the  “jerks.” 
There  is  nothing  in  this  class  of  phenomena  under  the 
name  of  “Spiritualism”  that  will  compare  with  the 
old-fashioned  Methodist  revivals.  I  have  seen  women, 
when  they  were  said  to  be  “under  the  control”  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  rise  on  one  foot,  and  whirl  around  for  a 
few  minutes  with  such  velocity  that  the  arms  and  the 
long  hair  extended  out  from  the  body  at  right  angles. 
This  was  called  the  “whirling  exercise.”  There  were, 
also,  the  “jumping,”  “barking,”  “laughing,”  “crying,” 
and  “rolling  exercises,”  besides  the  “jerks  ;  ”  and  in 
modern  mediumism  they  have  one  I  should  call  the 
“yelling  exercise,”  in  imitation  of  the  Indian  war- 
whoop.  And,  as  now  mediums  are  said  to  be  in  a 
state  of  “unconscious  trance,”  so  these  religious  fanat¬ 
ics  never  confessed  to  any  memory  as  to  the  exercises 
through  which  they  had  passed. 

Hence  it  is  manifest  that  we  are  not  to  depend  upon 


92 


IDEOLOGY. 


this  class  of  persons  for  an  explanation  as  to  the  motive- 
power  by  which  they  are  “controlled.”  For  certain  it 
is  that  as  the  light  of  science  dawns  upon  the  common 
people,  revival  “jerks”  and  all  similar  mediumistic 
phenomena  will  be  few  and  far  between. 

During  a  recent  period,  the  “evangelical  ministers” 
of  Boston  combined  in  preaching  sermons  in  which 
each  one  gave  his  views  as  to  the  reasons  why  so  very 
few,  comparatively,  attended  the  churches  on  Sunday. 
These  views  were  called  for  especially  in  consideration 
of  the  fact  that  the  theatres  and  all  other  resorts 
for  public  amusement  were  well  attended.  There 
were  a  dozen  or  more  of  these  sermons,  principally 
from  city  clergymen,  reported  in  the  city  papers,  and 
some  fourteen  “reasons”  in  all  were  enumerated  why 
so  very  few  people  went  to  church  on  Sunday.  Yet, 
among  them  all,  not  one  of  these  “  evangelical  minis¬ 
ters  ”  ventured  to  mention  “faith,”  the  want  of  “saving 
faith,”  as  the  true  reason  why  their  ministry  was  not 
better  attended.  Thus,  failing  to  assign  the  true  rea¬ 
son,  all  the  other  reasons  assigned  were  not  “  the  truth, 
the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth.”  Is  it  to 
be  supposed  that  there  was  not  one  or  more  of  those 
ministers  that  knew  well  enough  what  the  true  reason 
was  why  the  churches  were  so  poorly  attended  ? 

Here  follows  a  statement  of  those  oracular  medium¬ 
istic  announcements  in  the  belief  of  which  certain 
characteristic  nervous  and  mental  phenomena  are  sure 
to  follow  ;  that  is,  when  these  ideas  are  affirmed  per¬ 
sistently  in  the  hearing  of  people  uninformed,  and  who 
know  no  better  than  to  believe  them  !  The  term  dogma 
has  this  signification  :  it  is  an  expressed  opinion  to  be 
taken  upon  trust,  and  which  is  of  no  account  without 


REVIVALS  OF  RELIGION. 


93 


faith.  All  Christians  believe  these  dogmas,  even  those 
who  do  not  favor  “revivals.”  It  is  enthusiasm  in  the 
faith  of  these  dogmas  which  “gets  up”  revivals,  cru¬ 
sades,  and  other  forms  of  fanaticism. 

I. 

The  dogma  that  the  world  was  created  in  six  days, 
and  in  the  germ  of  humanity  the  Creator  failed  and 
was  disappointed  in  his  work.  Gen.  vi.  6.  The  Hebrew 
reads  :  “  And  the  Lord  cried  in  his  heart  that  he  had 
made  man  upon  the  earth  ”  !  He  was  so  much  grieved 
that  he  had  made  man  on  the  face  of  the  earth  that  he 
determined  to  destroy  the  entire  race,  except  Noah  and 
his  family  ;  and  this  determination  he  fulfilled  by  bring¬ 
ing  a  flood,  when  it  rained  forty  days  ;  so  that  the  earth, 
including  the  hills  and  mountains,  was  covered  by  the 
waters. 

II. 

The  dogma  that  God  is  angry  with  humanity,  jealous, 
and  vindictive,  visiting  the  iniquities  of  the  fathers 
upon  their  children,  from  the  first  man  Adam  down  to 
the  last  human  being  that  hereafter  may  be  born ! 

III. 

The  dogma  that  God  caused  Jesus  to  be  born  of  a 
woman  without  a  human  father,  and  he  caused  him  to 
suffer  an  infamous  death  on  a  cross,  in  order  thus  to 
counteract  the  dire  consequences  of  his  own  failure  in 
man’s  “creation.” 

IV. 

The  dogma  that  Jesus,  thus  born,  is  a  medium 
between  God,  who  has  been  offended  by  his  own  work, 
and  the  human  race,  lost  eternally  by  this  failure. 


94 


IDEOLOGY. 


V. 

The  dogma  that  Jesus,  by  his  death  upon  the  cross, 
made  himself  an  atonement,  a  full  and  perfect  satisfac¬ 
tion  to  the  demands  of  Infinite  Justice  for  the  sins  of 
the  whole  world  of  mankind. 

VI. 

The  dogma  that  only  those  of  the  human  race  who 
exercise  “saving  faith”  in  this  atonement  at  the  mo¬ 
ment  when  they  die  are  benefited  by  it.  All  others, 
when  they  die,  “  go  away  into  everlasting  punishment.” 

VII. 

The  dogma  that  Moses,  the  prophets,  and  the  apos¬ 
tles  were  divinely  “inspired”  mediums  between  God 
and  “the  rest  of  mankind,”  appointed  by  God  to  make 
known  his  will ;  so  that  what  purports  to  be  their  writ¬ 
ings  or  utterances  is  truly  “the  word  of  God.” 

VIII. 

The  dogma  that  the  successors  of  the  apostles, 
whether  popes,  bishops,  priests,  elders,  preachers,  or 
ministers  of  the  gospel,  when  truly  so  called,  are  divinely 
appointed  mediums  between  God  and  the  “  rest  of  man¬ 
kind,”  and  their  function  is  to  declare  the  will  of  God, 
and  to  threaten  all  who  will  not  exercise  faith  in  their 
declarations  with  God’s  wrath  in  hell  forever. 

IX. 

The  dogma  that  there  is  an  invisible,  malignant, 
lying  Devil,  with  an  innumerable  host  of  evil  angels, 
prowling  about  near  to  every  living  soul,  seeking  whom 
they  can  entice  into  sin  and  everlasting  torments  in  hell  > 


REVIVALS  OF  RELIGION. 


95 


moreover,  that,  in  this  infernal  work,  these  devils  have 
been  wofully  successful,  as  they  will  be  to  the  end  of 
time,  and  thus  by  far  the  biggest  proportion  of  the 
human  race  enter  the  “ broad  way”  to  eternal  death. 

X. 

The  dogma  as  to  the  absolute  authority  of  the  medi- 
umistic  writings  in  the  Bible.  Those  refusing  to  yield 
to  that  authority  are  forever  damned,  “cast  out  into 
utter  darkness,  where  there  is  weeping,  wailing,  and 
gnashing  of  teeth.” 

XI. 

The  dogma  in  respect  to  sin,  that  it  is  an  infinite 
evil  committed  by  a  finite  being. 

XII. 

The  dogma  respecting  the  government  of  God,  that 
he  punishes  sinners  in  an  eternal  hell,  not  for  their  good, 
but  to  gratify  his  own  love  of  praise  and  glory. 

XIII. 

The  dogma  respecting  a  new  birth  and  a  “  change  of 
heart.”  The  views  which  a  sinner  has  been  induced 
to  entertain  of  himself  is  a  “change  of  heart,”  and  he 
is  thus  “born  again.”  Such  a  “conversion”  instantly 
renders  a  liar  truthful,  a  dishonest  man  honest,  and  a 
bad  man  as  good  as  the  best. 

XIV. 

The  dogma  in  respect  to  faith,  “saving  faith,”  that 
faith  that  creates  “the  evidence  of  things  unseen.” 
This  dogma  forbids  faith  in  humanity,  faith  in  the 
unvarying  laws  of  matter  and  of  mind. 


96 


IDEOLOGY. 


XV. 

The  dogma  respecting  prayer,  based  upon  the  false 
idea  that  aspiration  is  not  a  spontaneity  in  the  human 
mind,  as  really  filial  love  is  ;  and  that  by  praying  in 
faith  Infinite  Wisdom  will  remove  a  mountain  into  the 
sea. 

XVI. 

That  dogma  that  drilling  the  minds  of  people  with 
these  dogmas  will  change  the  elements  of  human  char¬ 
acter  for  the  better,  and  without  a  persistent  trust  in 
their  truthfulness,  the  race  is  accursed  of  God,  and 
doomed  to  an  unending  hell ! 

Such  are  the  principal  dogmas  that  are  preached  in 
the  pulpit  to-day,  and  they  are  the  same  that  I  drilled/ 
into  the  minds  of  my  auditors  for  twenty  years,  and  by 
which  I  “got  up  ”  revivals,  and  such  “revivals”  as  are 
not  witnessed  at  the  present  time,  and  only  because 
people  are  now  generally  more  informed  than  they  were 
fifty  years  ago. 

How  Revivals  are  Got  up. 

Does  any  Christian  or  any  minister  of  the  gospel 
imagine  that  the  author  of  this  volume  could  have  been 
a  Methodist  revival  preacher  for  a  score  of  years,  and 
still  be  ignorant  of  the  methods  by  which  revivals  are 
got  up  ?  Why  should  I  have  been  a  dull  scholar  in  such 
a  school  ?  And  why  should  I  not  know,  even  far  better 
than  all  the  evangelists  and  revivalists  of  the  present 
day,  the  clap-trap,  the  sensational  appeals  to  credulity 
and/p#?',  the  persistent  drilling  with  sermons,  prayers, 
and  song  ?  I  know,  indeed,  far  better  than  any  one 
could  inform  me,  how  the  epidemic  is  inaugurated,  and 


REVIVALS  OF  RELIGION. 


97 


how  it  is  spread  from  one  to  another,  and  from  village 
to  village.  All  such  revivals  are  mental  epidemics  : 
they  are  human  in  their  inceptions,  and  always  to 
be  accounted  for,  scientifically,  by  Ideology  and  forces 
that  inhere  in  the  human  mind.  The  phenomena  that 
are  attributed  to  “  God,”  “Jesus,”  and  the  “Devil  ”  are 
self-induced,  and  controlled  by  laws  that  are  now  better 
understood  than  formerly.  As  ignorance  is  the  devil 
of  humanity  that  we  all  have  got  to  fight,  so  is  science 
and  a  knowledge  of  Nature’s  laws  our  highest  savior. 
Hence  credulity  and  ignorance  of  Psychology  are 
the  soil  in  which  all  mental  epidemics  flourish.  When 
people  are  ignorant  enough,  they  can  believe  anything, 
however  absurd.  The  repetition  of  revival  dogmas,  as 
in  contagious  disease,  is  at  first  confined  to  one  family, 
when,  by  constant  drilling  with  revival  ideas,  as  the 
plant  is  well  known  to  take  its  essence,  its  form,  and 
its  use  from  the  germ  whence  it  grew,  so  with  corre¬ 
sponding  unvariability  do  the  revival  phenomena  take 
their  shape  and  their  drift  from  the  mystical  ideas 
preached,  prayed,  and  sung  for  their  production. 

Such  ideas  can  have  no  other  influence  or  authority 
than  fogs  of  mysticism  with  which  they  are  associated. 
But  these  false  ideas  become  a  power  when  adopted  by 
large  numbers.  Then  persecution  and  witchcraft  obtain 
a  foothold.  If,  therefore,  the  teacher  we  follow  is  con¬ 
trolled  by  barbarian  ideas,  his  manhood  is  held  in 
abeyance  ;  he  is  a  fanatic.  The  human  mind  cannot 
expand  into  a  perfect  sphere  while  the  mental  faculties 
are  compressed  with  the  shackles  of  superstition.  Man¬ 
hood  is  attained  only  in  the  full  and  the  harmonious 
development  of  all  the  intellectual  faculties  in  agree¬ 
ment.  Nor  is  a  healthy,  complete  manhood  attained  in 


98 


IDEOLOGY. 


a  year  or  two.  It  is  the  growth  of  a  hundred  years  or  so. 
We  see  what  the  barbarian  idea  was  in  what  is  reported 
of  Moses:  witness  his  notions  of  his  mediumship  between 
the  Hebrews  and  his  revengeful,  vindictive,  and  blood¬ 
thirsty  God,  whose  love  of  approbation  was  so  great 
that  he  destroys  with  an  everlasting  destruction  all 
that  should  fail  in  shouting  his  glory  !  Consider,  also, 
his  bloody  sacrifices,  and  his  death-penalties  of  hell-fire 
with  which  all  his  commands  were  enforced.  Such  is 
the  God  of  religious  revivals. 

Notice  with  what  pertinacity  and  power  the  Bible 
ideas  have  been  imposed  upon  a  large  portion  of  the 
race  of  mankind,  and  for  thousands  of  years  past,  even 
to  this  day ;  so  that  vast  numbers  have  been  victimized 
and  controlled  by  these  savage  ideas,  in  spite  of  all  the 
progressive  tendencies  of  the  past  ages  The  Turk  is 
controlled  by  the  idea  of  Mohammed  ;  Christians  have 
yielded  to  Calvin’s  “horrible  decree”  of  eternal  elec¬ 
tion  and  reprobation !  So  of  the  Mormons,  Shakers, 
Swedenborgians,  Campbellites  and  other  classes.  Mil¬ 
lions  of  people  in  this  country  pride  themselves  in  bear¬ 
ing  the  name  of  “Wesley.”  They  believe  as  he 
believed,  pray  as  he  prayed,  preach  as  he  preached, 
dress  as  he  dressed,  do  as  he  did,  and  consider  it  an 
evidence  of  peculiar  merit  that  they  do  not  differ 
from  him  at  all  !  In  all  their  devotions  they  use 
certain  terms  because  he  used  them,  and  often  boast 
of  their  being  like  him  ;  they  are  “  Wesleyans,”  and 
imagine  they  are  receivers  of  the  Truth  because 
they  are  Wesleyans,  not  that  they  are  like  him  because 
they  are  truthful.  Their  revivals  are  “got  up”  by 
preaching,  praying,  singing,  and  talking  Wesley  s  pe¬ 
culiar  ideas  into  the  minds  of  the  people.  The  con- 


REVIVALS  OF  RELIGION. 


99 


verts  in  their  revivals  are  taught  Wesley’s  notions  of  a 
vindictive  God  and  an  old  ugly  Devil. 

One  of  the  deepest  susceptibilities  of  the  human 
mind  is  in  the  organs  of  fear,  —  the  fear  of  death,  the  fear 
of  want,  the  fear  of  the  future  ;  and  it  is  to  this  suscep¬ 
tibility  that  the  preacher  appeals  in  all  he  says  of  the 
“wrath  of  an  angry  God  ”  and  the  terrors  of  an  unend¬ 
ing  hell.  No  conversions  ever  occurred  among  those 
who  do  not  believe  that  God  is  or  could  be  angry  ;  none 
among  those  who  do  not  believe  that  God  could  inflict 
vindictive  punishment ;  and  hence  the  first  thing  done 
by  the  preacher  to  get  up  a  revival,  always,  is  to  preach 
on  the  “wrath  of  God,”  or  vindictive,  eternal  punish¬ 
ment.  No  revivals  occur  where  these  notions  of  a 
disappointed ,  angry,  vindictive  God  are  not  preached 
into  the  people  until  they  become  infected  with  them, 
their  fears  excited,  and  thus  influenced  they  pray  and 
seek  for  relief.  And  when  Pathetized  into  the  belief 
that  God  has  changed  his  purpose  concerning  them,  of 
course  they  “feel  relieved,”  “feel  better,”  and  finally 
“have  experienced  a  hope”  that  God  will  not  deal 
justly  with  them,  and  send  them  where  they  ought  to 
go,  — to  an  eternal  hell ! 

Bear  in  mind  what  I  have  stated,  that  the  philosophy 

of  that  influence  exerted  in  the  so-called  revivals  is 

psychological :  it  is  precisely  the  same  as  that  exerted 

always  and  everywhere  by  one  mind  over  another ; 

when  any  power  is  put  forth  it  is  psychological,  of 

• 

course.  No  matter  what  the  “measures”  may  be, 
whether  writing,  speaking,  praying,  singing,  —  a  look,  a 
sign,  a  suggestion,  —  the  susceptibilities  of  the  mind 
are  soil  in  which  the  seed  must  germinate  and  grow. 

The  excellences  of  human  character  are  developed 


100 


IDEOLOGY. 


from  these  susceptibilities.  But  for  them  man  could 
never  be  educated,  and  never  be  assisted  by  his  fellow- 
man  at  all.  We  grieve  with  those  who  grieve;  we 
unconsciously  yield  to  the  states  of  mind  evinced  by 
any  one  in  whom  we  confide ;  and  such  is  the  depth  of 
this  sympathetic,  imitative  susceptibility,  that  we  are 
often  overpowered  by  it,  even  against  our  own  resist¬ 
ance.  There  are  times  when  you  cannot  help  laughing 
when  you  see  others  laugh.  Nay,  the  more  you  try 
not  to  laugh,  the  more  the  fit  seizes  upon  you,  until 
you  are  completely  overpowered  and  carried  away 
with  it. 

The  priests  always  and  everywhere  draw  their 
power  from  alleged  revelations  from  the  unseen  world. 
The  organs  of  marvellousness,  credulity,  or  wonder  are 
always  most  active  in  children,  and  in  those  advanced  in 
life  who  lack  information  as  to  the  matters  on  which 
they  are  addressed ;  and  it  must  follow,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  that  when  appeals  are  thus  constantly  made  to 
the  organs  of  wonder  in  the  multitude, ■  they  become 
excited ,  they  stare,  they  groan,  they  pray,  roar,  jump, 
jerk,  smell  hell,  and  see  the  Devil  it  may  be. 

These  fanatical  appeals  are  made  to  the  organs  of 
fear.  The  people  are  told  what  a  terrible  being  God 
is;  that  he  is  a  jealous  God,  —  an  angry,  vindictive 
God,  and  that  he  is  seeking  their  utter  ruin.  The  views 
given  of  God  in  all  revivals  are  horrible ,  and  enough 
to  throw  those  into  fits  who  believe  what  is  said.  It  is 
not  to  be  supposed  that  nervous  men,  women,  and 
children  can  listen  to  such  harangues  without  having 
their  organs  of  wonder  and  fear  affected.  But  if  one 
person  thus  becomes  agitated  in  a  public  audience,  the 
sight  of  this  one  person  affects  others  more  than  any 


REVIVALS  OF  RELIGION. 


IOI 


sermon  could  do.  Thus  it  is  revivals  are  spread  from 
one  church  to  another  by  these  laws  of  sympathetic 
imitation. 

Perhaps  I  should  be  scarcely  considered  as  doing 
justice  to  this  subject  if  I  were  to  omit  a  consideration 
of  the  changes  which  these  excitements  are  supposed 
to  make  in  the  characters  of  men.  We  all  know  what 
notions  prevail  in  respect  to  what  is  called  “  conversion  ” 
and  “a  change  of  heart.”  In  the  essential  elements 
of  their  nature  men  are  never  changed.  They  never 
change  in  the  number  or  the  functions  of  their  mental 
faculties.  In  the  essential  tendencies ,  their  idiosyn- 
crasies,  men  do  not  often  change.  A  covetous  man  is 
covetous,  in  despite  of  his  “conversion  ”  and  all  the 
“sanctifying  influences  of  the  Holy  Ghost.”  A  really 
benevolent  man  is  benevolent  ere  he  is  pathetized  by 
the  notions  of  the  Devil  and  of  an  eternal  hell-fire. 
The  laws  of  the  conjugal,  parental,  filial,  and  fraternal 
relations  of  life  all  exist  without  the  Bible  or  the  revival 
preacher. 

And  here  is  a  statement  which  I  feel  bound  to  make 
now,  after  an  experience  and  observation  extending 
over  a  period  of  more  than  fifty  years  in  revivals,  “four- 
days’  meetings,”  camp-meetings,  and  whatever  means 
have  been  used  for  getting  up  these  so-called  revivals 
of  religion.  My  statement  is  this,  namely,  that  among 
all  the  multitudes  that  I  have  seen  “converted”  in 
these  revivals,  I  have  never  found  one  person  whose 
mental  disposition  was  essentially  changed.  As  to  the 
real  character  of  the  man,  he  is  the  same  after  his 
“conversion”  that  he  was  before  he  is  said  to  have 
been  “born  again.”  If  he  were  covetous  before  he  was 
taken  into  the  church,  he  has  been  covetous  since. 


102 


IDEOLOGY. 


The  disposition  of  the  man  for  truthfulness,  for  good¬ 
ness,  and  justice  is  never  essentially  altered  by  what 
is  called  “the  new  birth,”  or  conversion. 

My  own  definition  of  religion  would  be,  that  it  is 
that  sense  of  obligation  which  controls  the  human 
mind  in  the  fulfilment  of  all  the  relations  of  life.  This 
sense  of  what  ought  to  be  done,  or  left  undone,  is  older 
than  all  creeds,  older  than  all  Bibles,  and  does  not 
depend  upon  prayer  or  faith  or  “revivals”!  These 
mental  epidemics  are  an  evil,  yet  I  look  upon  them, 
however,  as  a  necessity.  Ignorance  is  a  necessity,  as 
are  all  the  evils  which  flow  from  it. 

I  have  had  excellent  opportunities  for  studying  the 
characters  of  men  under  the  influence  of  revivals.  In 
doing  so  I  have  been  accustomed  to  make  a  marked 
distinction  between  human  nature  and  the  characters 
of  men.  Human  nature  is  always  the  same ;  but  in 
character  men  differ,  as  they  differ  in  the  size  of  their 
bodies  and  in  their  ages  and  opportunities. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


CLAIRVOYANCE. 

This  term  was  at  first  used  by  the  French.  It  sig¬ 
nifies  clear  sight,  or  vision,  without  the  eyes  !  But,  as 
it  is  still  doubted  by  many  intelligent  people  as  to 
whether  there  is  any  such  knowing  faculty  which  sees 
without  the  use  of  the  eye,  I  give  here  what  I  suppose 
to  be  an  authentic  account  of  a  case  that  recently 
occurred  in  Monson,  Mass.  It  was  published  in  the 
New  York  Mercury  of  a  recent  date  in  January,  1885, 
and  it  is  as  follows  :  — 

“Take  a  ride  with  me,  and  I  will  show  you  a  curious  phe¬ 
nomenon,  a  psychological  puzzle  and  prodigy,”  quoth  Dr. 
Newton,  as  he  picked  up  the  reins  and  prepared  to  vault 
into  his  carriage.  “  I’ve  got  a  wonderful  boy  patient  living 
over  yonder  in  the  gorge  between  the  mountains,”  — pointing 
with  his  gloved  forefinger  to  a  little  white  cottage  that  lay 
basking  in  the  sun  a  couple  of  miles  away.  The  place  passed 
some  ten  years  ago  or  more  into  the  hands  of  John  Collins, 
whose  son  James,  a  lad  of  fifteen,  was  the  psychological  puz¬ 
zle  and  prodigy  cited  by  the  doctor. 

“  Five  years  ago,”  said  the  doctor,  in  substance,  as  we 
drove  along,  “the  boy,  until  then  of  exceedingly  vigorous 
and  robust  constitution,  was  suddenly  stricken  down  with 
typhoid  fever,  and  lay  for  twenty-one  days  totally  unconscious, 
—  too  sick  for  the  delirium  that  often  attends  such  cases. 
The  little  fellow  survived,  but  came  out  of  his  insensibility 
with  an  abnormal  and  apparently  settled  hyperassthesia  (or 
exaltation  of  the  function)  of  the  nerves  of  se?isation. 


103 


104 


IDEOLOGY. 


“  I  give  my  word,  strange  as  the  phenomenon  may  seem, 
that  I  have  known  Jimmy  Collins  to  discover  the  presence 
of  a  person  at  a  distance  of  more  than  five  hundred  yards 
from  the  house  when  he  was  sitting  quietly  in  the  corner. 
And  not  only  that,  but  I  have  known  him  to  tell  who  the 
party  was  at  that  distance,  and  have  tested  this  strange 
faculty  of  his  so  thoroughly,  and  under  such  a  variety  of  con¬ 
ditions  and  circumstances,  that  deception  is  not  possible. 
If  he  is  at  home  at  this  moment  he  knows  that  I  am  on  my 
way  thither  to  see  him,  with  a  stranger  for  my  companion  ; 
and  the  probability  is  that  he  has  already  notified  his  mother 
of  the  fact.  Let  me  give  you  an  example  of  his  acumen. 

“  Some  four  weeks  ago,  a  few  minutes  before  the  clock 
struck  one,  he  was  awakened  by  a  dream  that  two  thieves 
were  going  past  the  house  with  stolen  goods  done  up  in 
bundles.  He  described  the  two  men  accurately  as  to  their 
personnel ,  repeated  the  whispered  conversation  between 
them  as  they  went  by,  indicated  the  direction  from  which 
they  came,  and  was  altogether  as  minute  and  exact  in  his 
narrative  as  though  he  had  been  wide  awake,  and  had  seen 
them  with  open  eyes  by  daylight.  At  the  breakfast  table  the 
boy  mentioned  the  dream  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Collins ;  but  they 
paid  no  attention  to  the  story  until  about  noon,  when  a  squad 
of  men  from  the  village  (Monson)  passed  the  house  on  the 
track  of  a  couple  of  burglars  who  had  broken  into  a  dry- 
goods  store  and  carried  off  silks,  velvets,  and’  cashmeres  of 
considerable  value,  besides  robbing  the  till  of  a  few  dollars 
in  bills  and  silver. 

“  The  boy  was  absent  on  an  errand  for  the  moment,  but 
when  Mr.  Collins  mentioned  his  dream  as  a  curious  coin¬ 
cidence,  the  officers  and  posse  decided  to  remain  till  he 
returned,  and  question  him.  They  did  so,  and  he  furnished 
such  an  accurate  delineation  of  the  appearance,  dress,  etc., 
of  the  two  thieves  he  had  seen  to  pass  the  house  in  his  dream, 
that  members  of  the  party  identified  them  as  persons  they 
had  noticed  prowling  about  the  village  late  on  the  preceding 
afternoon.  With  the  information  thus  obtained,  the  pur¬ 
suers  followed  fast  upon  the  trail  of  the  fugitives,  and  over¬ 
hauled  them  at  a  little  cabin  in  the  woods,  some  two  miles 
from  the  road. 

“  Now,  the  strange  feature  of  the  affair  is  that  the  clue  to 
the  retreat  which  the  thieves  had  established  was  furnished 
by  Jimmy  Collins.  In  describing  his  dream  and  its  incidents, 


CLAIRVOYANCE. 


105 


he  declared  that  he  heard  the  man  with  the  light  hair  and 
beard  whisper  to  the  other  something  about  a  cabin  up  under 
the  mountain ,  and  say  that  the  Devil  himself  couldn’t  find  them 
there.  He  then  related  how  he  had  seen  them  walk  down 
the  road  a  few  rods,  and  turn  into  a  cart-path  at  the  left, 
which  led  to  a  sheltered  coal-pit  bottom  and  an  abandoned 
cabin  at  the  foot  of  Peaked  Mountain,  —  a  precipitous  crag 
whose  summit  overlooks  this  section  of  the  country  for 
leagues  about,  and  here  they  were  captured  with  their  booty.” 

“  ‘All  that  I  can  tell  you,’  said  the  boy,  ‘  is  that  ever  since 
I  was  sick  I  have  felt  as  if  there  was  a  kind  of  atmosphere 
about  me,  extending  to  a  very  great  distance.  I  can’t  tell 
you  how  far.  It  seems  to  grow  thinner  and  thinner  near  the 
edges.  Beyond  it  I  can’t  see  anything  any  more  than  any 
one  else  can  ;  but  the  moment  anybody  else  comes  into  my 
circle,  as  I  call  it,  I  see  him  as  clearly  as  though  I  had  my 
very  eyes  on  him,  and  can  describe  his  dress  and  what  he  is 
doing  just  as  well  as  though  I  were  standing  right  by  him.’  ” 

With  the  consent  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Collins,  and  the  con¬ 
currence  of  the  boy  himself,  Dr.  Newton  instituted  some 
simple  experiments.  While  the  boy  was  sitting  in  the  corner 
by  me,  in  such  position  and  attitude  that  a  glance  from  the 
window  was  impossible,  the  doctor  went  out  to  his  buggy, 
got  in,  drove  down  to  the  brook,  a  distance  of  about  three 
hundred  yards  from  the  house,  gave  the  horse  a  bucket  of 
water,  took  his  surgical  case  from  his  pocket  and  put  it 
under  the  cushion  of  the  seat,  then  got  in  and  drove  back  to 
the  house  again,  the  patient  describing  each  movement  in 
detail  at  the  instant  of  its  occurrence,  even  to  the  deposit  of 
the  surgical  case  beneath  the  cushion. 

Dr.  Newton  then  went  into  an  adjoining  room,  looked  at 
the  clock,  compared  the  hour  and  minute  with  the  time  indi¬ 
cated  by  his  “hunting-case,  took  a  statuary  group  of  Cupid 
and  Psyche  on  the  mantel  in  the  midst  of  other  ornamental 
pieces,  examined,  and  replaced  it,  —  the  boy  recounting  each 
movement  as  it  occurred,  without  the  least  hesitancy  or  ap¬ 
pearance  of  listening.  As  a  crucial  experiment,  the  boy 
being  a  good  writer,  the  doctor  placed  him  at  the  table  in 
the  middle  of  the  room,  with  pencil  and  paper  before  him, 
and  the  old-fashioned  clock  in  full  view.  My  part  of  the 
experiment  consisted  in  taking  the  horse  and  buggy,  driving 
off  in  any  direction  I  listed,  turning  about,  backing,  going 
forward,  performing  any  eccentric  evolution  that  occurred 


io6 


IDEOLOGY. 


to  me,  and  so  on.  I  was  to  note  the  hour  and  minute  of 
any  movement  that  I  should  make,  while  the  boy  was  to 
describe  the  same,  the  point  at  which  it  occurred,  and  the 
hour  and  minute  of  the  occurrence  by  the  clock  before  him,  — 
the  two  narratives  to  be  compared  with  each  other  on  my 
return.  I  was  absent  seventeen  minutes,  and  purposely 
omitted  to  record  various  little  details  by  way  of  puzzling 
my  strange  raco?iteur ;  but  in  every  such  instance  the  boy 
corrected  my  notes  by  reference  to  his  own,  insisting  that  I 
was  either  mistaken  or  had  forgotten  to  make  a  memorandum. 

“  I  saw  you,  sir,”  said  the  lad,  decisively,  “get  out  of  the 
wagon  where  the  old  cart-path  enters  the  woods,  tie  the 
halter  strap  round  an  oak  sprout  that  stands  by  the  road, 
and  then  walk  up  the  path  as  far  as  a  big  rock,  and  turn 
around  and  come  back  again.”  He  had  described  the  action 
with  absolute  accuracy.  Satisfied  with  my  test,  I  signified 
to  the  doctor  that  it  was  needless  to  detain  him  any  longer, 
and  we  took  our  departure. 

Its  Pathology. 

Like  fits,  insanity,  or  catalepsy,  the  best  cases  of 
vision  without  the  eye  are  always  the  result  of  some 
disease,  some  nervous  disturbance.  Nor  is  it,  as  some 
have  imagined,  necessarily  mind  in  a  state  of  trance. 
I  have  for  sixty  years  been  familiar  with  the  trance ; 
nor  could  I  affirm  that,  in  all  that  I  ever  knew  to 
be  entranced,  did  I  ever  know  half  a  dozen  cases  of 
clairvoyance.  I  am  sure  that  a  great  misapprehension 
prevails  when  we  hear  persons  talking  of  “  developing 
clairvoyance,”  as  really  as  if  they  were  to  propose  to 
cause  one  to  have  fits  or  to  become  insane.  My  opin¬ 
ion  is  that  the  very  few  cases  that  I  have  witnessed 
were  the  best,  and  each  of  these  were  in  persons  that 
had  previously  been  afflicted  with  fits  and  insanity. 
Mary  jane  Mason,  then  of  Lowell,  Mass.,  was  a  patient 
of  mine,  whom  I  cured  of  convulsions  and  insanity. 
She  evinced  clairvoyance.  She  told  me  the  contents 


CLAIRVOYANCE. 


107 


of  my  trunk,  of  which  no  one  ever  saw  the  key  but 
myself ;  and,  with  her  eyes  closed,  she  read  and  men¬ 
tioned  the  errors  in  a  long  letter  addressed  to  me  by 
my  brother,  Dr.  James  W.  Sunderland,  then  a  Professor 
in  Kenyon  College  at  the  West.  Another  patient  of 
mine,  in  Providence,  R.  I.,  Miss  Ann  E.  Hall,  who  had 
never  been  perfectly  healthy,  evinced  “vision  without 
the  eye,”  at  Dr.  Murphy’s,  in  Newport,  R.  I.,  when  she 
read  the  following  words  written  on  a  piece  of  paper 
that  was  at  the  time  crimped  up  in  a  wad  and  held  tight 
in  her  hand,  omitting  the  name  included  in  parenthe¬ 
ses  :  — 

Boston,  May  15,  1845. 

Dr.  Sunderland,  Sir  :  — 

One  of  Dr.  Hewitt’s  patients  (Isaac  Bryant)  is  anxious  to 
be  entranced,  having  seen  your  name  in  yesterday’s  paper. 
If  you  will  pay  him  a  visit  and  attempt  to  do  it,  he  is  ready 
to  pay  you.  In  his  behalf, 

J.  Rainesville. 

“Vision  without  the  eye”  rarely  occurs.  It  is  not  a 
habit  that  may  be  cultivated,  any  more  than  fits  or  any 
form  of  disease. 

The  case  of  Miss  Jane  C.  Ryder  attracted  a  good 
deal  of  attention  for  a  year  or  more,  in  Springfield  and 
Worcester,  in  1833  and  ’34;  and  I  now  have  before  me 
a  copy  of  a  small  volume  published  of  it,  by  Dr.  L.  W. 
Belden,  who  declares  that  during  Miss  Ryder’s  spells, 
which  came  upon  her  without  her  volition,  that  in  the 
dark  and  with  both  her  eyes  bandaged ,  so  that  it  was  not 
possible  for  her  to  see  with  them  at  all,  she  threaded 
needles ,  sewed ,  told  the  time  accurately  by  different 
watches  !  She  read  the  whole  three  pages  of  Bryant' s 
“  Thanatopsisf  and  she  read  and  wrote  letters  ! 


io8 


IDEOLOGY. 


But  these  cases  are  sufficient  for  my  present  purpose. 
Clairvoyance  is  never  idiopathic,  but  symptomatic 
always.  The  trance,  fits,  and  insanity  all  come  on  from 
disturbances  in  the  nervous  centres,  and  when  clairvoy¬ 
ance  is  evinced  it  is  from  similar  causes.  Hence  it  is 
easy  to  see  the  great  mistake,  to  which  I  have  elsewhere 
alluded,  made  by  Andrew  J.  Davis,  the  “  Poughkeepsie 
Seer,”  in  regard  to  this  subject  of  “vision  without  the 
eye.”  Hear  him  :  — 

“  In  spontaneous  clairvoyance,  that  is  identified  with  the 
state  that  is  induced  by  the  magnetic  processes,  the  eyes  of 
the  mind,  the  internal  powers  of  vision,  are  wonderfully 
strengthened  and  enlarged  ;  and  there  are  no  boundaries  of 
time  or  space  that  can  circumscribe  their  penetration.”  — 
Great  Harmonia,  Vol.  iii,  p.  265. 

Similar  to  the  robin  that  knows  enough  to  construct 
its  nest  in  the  tree  near  the  road  where  the  hand  of  any 
rude  boy  may  despoil  it,  so  of  clairvoyance.  It  is 
limited  as  to  time.  It  may  occur  once,  and  never 
again  ;  and  also  limited  as  to  the  extent  of  the  vision 
or  the  diversity  of  objects  of  which  knowledge  is 
obtained.  The  mistakes  in  regard  to  it  are  numerous  :  — 

1.  That  it  is  extended  beyond  time  and  space. 
There  is  no  proof  that  it  can  be  extended  beyond  all 
that  appertain  to  this  world. 

2.  It  is  an  unproved  assumption  that  there  is  any 
faculty,  normal  or  abnormal ,  in  the  human  mind,  for 
knowing  what  God  or  a  ghost  is,  or  what  man’s  condi¬ 
tion  is  after  death.  Nature’s  order  cannot  be  cheated 
in  this  manner. 

3.  Confounding  clairvoyance  with  phenomena  anal¬ 
ogous  to  those  in  dreaming.  I  have  referred  to  a 
class  who  sometimes  cannot  distinguish  between  a 


CLAIRVOYANCE. 


109 


dream  and  things  they  had  witnessed  in  the  waking 
state  !  In  these  abnormal  states  they  set  up  for  doc¬ 
tors,  or,  may  be,  “inspirational  speakers.” 

There  never  was  a  greater  mistake  in  respect  to 
psychology  than  when  people  imagine  that  this  power 
can  be  safely  controlled  by  volition,  or  made  to  perform 
normal  motions  by  artificial  processes.  I  do  not  say 
that  clairvoyance  was  never  manifested  in  despite  of  all 
artificial  processes  ;  but  I  do  affirm  that  it  can  be  no 
more  consistent  to  attempt  the  excitement  of  clairvoy¬ 
ance  by  artificial  processes  than  it  is  healthy,  natural, 
and  consistent  to  excite  any  functions  of  the  human 
body  by  artificial  processes.  Dreaming  is  a  common 
and  natural  result  of  sleep,  which  occurs  in  the  natural 
course  of  things.  But  would  it  be  healthy  to  attempt 
to  induce  dreaming  from  day  to  day  as  a  matter  of 
business  ?  And  yet  how  many  persons  are  now  engaged 
in  professions  of  clairvoyance  as  a  matter  of  business  ! 

No  one  has  contributed  more  to  this  species  of  char¬ 
latanry  than  A.  J.  Davis.  Making  professions  as  to 
clairvoyance  himself,  the  most  extravagant  of  anything 
of  the  kind  ever  put  forth  by  any  human  being,  he 
gives  ( Revelations ,  page  38)  minute  directions  as  to  the 
artificial  processes  by  which  “  spontaneous  clairvoyance  ” 
may  be  induced  !  And,  will  the  reader  believe  it  ?  Mr. 
Davis,  in  his  description  of  the  mummery,  “  thumb  to 
thumb”  process,  tells  us  that  when  the  “independent” 
(clairvoyant)  condition  is  produced,  “the  body”  of  the 
patient  tips  over  on  the  side,  “assumes  an  inclined 
position”!  At  the  time  this  was  written,  Davis  was 
constantly  in  the  habit  of  bending  his  body  over  his 
chair  to  the  right  or  left,  at  a  right  angle,  in  order  to 
become  clairvoyant ! ! ! 


I IO 


IDEOLOGY. 


This  silly  habit  of  bending  the  body  over  the  side,  as 
also  the  jerking  and  twitching  parts  of  the  process,  Mr. 
Davis  took  by  the  laws  of  sympathetic  imitation.  He 
had  seen  some  one  affected  in  that  way,  and  he  caught 
the  infection  precisely  as  the  mediums  catch  the  ner¬ 
vous,  shaking,  and  pawing  processes,  everywhere  com¬ 
mon  when  the  victim  is  once  taught  to  believe  that 
some  nondescript  invisible  personage  has  got  hold  of 
him.  Nervous  phenomena,  as  well  as  mental,  all  spread 
until  they  become  contagious,  or  a  mania,  by  the  laws 
of  sympathetic  imitation.  But  for  one  assuming  what 
Davis  has,  in  respect  to  his  advantages  for  knowledge, 
for  such  an  one  to  recommend  incidental  nervous  results 
as  a  fundamental  law  of  clairvoyance,  only  shows  how 
big  a  fool  a  man  may  make  of  himself  when  his  mind 
has  once  been  “clearly  reversed,”  as  Mr.  Davis  tells  us 
his  mind  was  when  he  was  magnetized. 

In  connection  with  no  other  function  has  there  ever 
been  more  real  fanaticism,  credulity,  error,  and  delusion. 
Look  into  our  papers  and  note  the  “clairvoyant,” 
“independent  clairvoyant,”  “doctors,”  “professors,” 
“fortune-tellers,”  and  “mediums,”  who  describe  “  the 
past”  and  “the  future.”  And,  if  we  believe  what  they 
pretend  to,  these  creatures  ransack  the  remotest  cor¬ 
ners  of  the  earth  ;  they  explore  the  distant  planets ; 
they  enter  heaven,  and  bring  back  messages  from  imag¬ 
inary  persons,  who  never  had  any  existence,  except  in 
the  brains  of  these  charlatans,  whose  minds  having  be¬ 
come  “clearly  reversed”  by  cupidity,  they  now  go  it 
strong  after  the  example  of  the  “  clairvoyant-in-chief, 
Mr.  A.  J.  Davis.” 

The  reader  will  please  bear  in  mind  the  definition  I 
have  given  of  clairvoyance ;  namely,  that  it  is  the 


CLAIRVOYANCE. 


1 1 1 


knowledge  of  knowable  things,  acquired  without  ratio¬ 
cination,  and  without  the  use  of  either  of  the  external 
senses.  When  I  say  knowable ,  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
knowledge  is  objective  of  things  external.  It  is  not  sub¬ 
jective  of  things  only  in  the  mind  of  the  so-called  clair¬ 
voyant.  If  we  were  to  include  instinctive  motions  in 
this  term,  then  plants  and  animals  are  clairvoyant. 
But  instinctive  motions  are  appropriate  only  to  the 
wants  of  the  individual  organism  acting.  Such  motions 
do  not  take  cognizance  of  the  wants  of  external  objects. 
In  man,  the  instinctive  motives  are  higher,  and  when 
excited  (as  we  have  seen  in  cases  of  catalepsy,  somnam¬ 
bulism,  insanity,  and  dreaming),  this  knowing  faculty 
extends  to  objects  outside  the  wants  of  the  organism. 
Here  it  is  in  place  to  ask  the  reader’s  attention  to  the 
following  deductions,  which  legitimately  follow  from 
what  has  been  already  stated :  — 

The  reasons  why  this  function  in  man,  to  any  con¬ 
siderable  extent,  cannot  be  safely  excited  by  artificial 
process  :  This  clairvoyant  power  was  at  first  manifested 
in  cases  of  disease  ;  and  its  most  decided  manifestations 
have  always  occurred  in  cases  of  scrofulous  diathesis, 
as  I  have  stated.  Hence  the  mischief  done  to  health 
and  the  laws  of  life  when  persons  attempt  to  carry  out 
Mr.  Davis’s  silly  mummery  of  “  thumb  to  thumb  ”  pro¬ 
cesses  for  bringing  about  that  state  in  which  he  says 
the  mind  is  “ clairniativej  or  “clearly  reversed With 
precisely  the  same  propriety  might  Mr.  Davis  recom¬ 
mend  certain  artificial  manual  processes  for  exciting 
any  one  of  the  purely  instinctive  functions.  Observe  ! 
that  my  objection  here  is  not  to  the  use  which  science 
and  philosophy  may  always  make  of  any  manifestations 
of  the  instinctive  knowing  functions  in  cases  of  disease, 


I  12 


IDEOLOGY. 


—  whenever  such  cases  occur  spontaneously,  as  in  som¬ 
nambulism  and  insanity. 

What  I  object  to  is  the  habitual  adoption  of  such 
processes  as  Mr.  Davis  calls  “magnetization,”  where 
the  body  shakes,  twitches,  jerks,  and  finally  tips  “over 
on  one  side,”  when  he  tells  us  the  mind  is  in  a  “supe¬ 
rior  condition,”  where  “there are  no  boundaries  of  time 
or  space  which  can  circumscribe  its  power.”  I  insist 
upon  it,  that  the  laws  of  life  and  the  best  good  of  all 
forbid  the  general  habit  of  all  such  artificial  excitements 
for  the  production  of  clairvoyance. 

It  is  a  fundamental  law  in  Nature  and  the  constitu¬ 
tion  of  things  that  man  shall  labor,  by  ratiocination 
for  all  his  highest  attainments  in  knowledge.  Were 
unlimited  knowledge  to  come  to  the  human  mind  with¬ 
out  ratiocination,  as  A.  J.  Davis  assumes  it  has  come 
to  him,  and  as  he  teaches  us  to  expect  by  his  “thumb 
to  thumb  ”  processes,  it  would  be  in  subversion  of 

the  human  constitution.  Everything  dwarfs  the  mind 

■ 

which  supersedes  the  use  of  the  external  senses,  and  the 
normal,  conscious  exercise  of  all  the  higher  attributes  of 
manhood,  in  the  acquisition  of  knowledge.  The  method 
proposed  by  the  self-styled  “  Poughkeepsie  seer  and 
clairvoyant  ”  annuls  and  supersedes  the  established 
order  of  the  universe  in  the  acquisition  of  knowledge. 
PI  is  plan  does,  indeed,  “  reverse  ”  the  human  mind,  and 
close  up  the  real  avenues  of  knowledge,  and  in  doing 
so  he  opens  the  flood-gates  of  error  and  fanaticism.  He 
tells  us  that  a  dream,  a  “state  of  sleep,”  a  “trance,” 
or  condition  of  the  mind  resembling  and  sometimes 
ending  in  insanity,  is  a  “superior  state,” — a  “royal 
road  ”  to  knowledge,  one  in  which  “  there  are  no  bounds 
of  time  and  space  which  can  circumscribe  ”  the  powers 


CLAIRVOYANCE. 


113 

of  the  clairvoyant  mind.  This  is  what  I  call  crystallized 
fanaticism. 

The  reader  may  now  perceive,  further,  why  I  use  the 
terms  “knowable”  and  “objective”  when  defining 
clairvoyance.  The  description  of  the  so-called  clairvoy¬ 
ant  is  not  clairvoyance,  unless  it  be  of  something  which 
others  can  know  besides  the  one  who  makes  the  alleged 
revelation.  To  deny  this  is  to  open  the  door  for 
unending  error  and  confusion ;  for  what  does  the 
dreamer’s  declarations  amount  to  when  they  are  all  sub¬ 
jective ,  — or,  what  is  the  same  thing,  when  it  cannot  be 
proved  that  they  are  outside  of  his  own  brains  ?  What 
useful  purpose  can  possibly  be  served  to  science  or 
philosophy  when  the  dreamer  affirms  about  the  origin 
of  this  universe,  and  of  his  “  entrance  into  the  second 
sphere,”  and  a  thousand  other  matters,  not  one  of  which 
is  knowable  or  susceptible  of  demonstration  ?  Yet 
this  is  precisely  the  thing  which  A.  J.  Davis  has 
been  engaged  in  doing  ever  since  1844,  when  he  assures 
us  his  mind  was  first  “clearly  reversed ”  by  “animal 
magnetism.” 

The  class  of  people  out  of  which  “  mediums  ”  are 
made  are  more  easily  hallucinated  than  any  other  class. 
Mr.  Davis  has  himself  given  this  very  account  of  his 
own  case,  and  all  others  whose  minds  he  says  became 
“clearly  reversed”  by  the  “thumb  to  thumb”  process 
which  he  recommends.  And  when  a  person  of  this 
peculiar  temperament  is  told,  yes,  merely  told,  that  he 
cannot  move,  and  he  cannot, — that  he  is  a  baboon, 
and  he  imagines  himself  a  baboon,  —  why,  of  course,  if 
told  that  he  is  a  clairvoyant,  he  imagines  himself  clair¬ 
voyant,  and  anon  he  imagines  himself  in  the  moon,  or 
in  “the  second  sphere”  with  Mr.  Davis,  and  then  we 


IDEOLOGY. 


1 14 

have  “lectures,”  “discourses,”  and  “communications” 
from  another  world. 

“Sensitives”  are  very  apt  to  become  opinionated. 
They  are  considered  by  their  friends  and  by  the  igno¬ 
rant  multitude  as  “wonderfully  gifted.”  They  are 
looked  upon  with  a  superstitious  awe.  They  are  con¬ 
sulted  in  all  matters  of  science,  philosophy,  and  religion  ; 
and  they  soon  become  oracles  in  matters  of  medicine, 
love,  lost  property,  marriage,  parentage,  and,  in  a  word, 
they  are  consulted  upon  any  and  upon  all  subjects 
which  come  within  the  range  of  the  human  imagination. 
Thus,  if  you  want  to  know  who  lives  in  heaven,  and 
“  scenes  in  the  summer  land,”  or  if  you  desire  to  be 
informed  as  to  what  is  done  in  the  planet  Mars,  or  Jupi¬ 
ter,  or  Saturn,  consult  a  “clairvoyant,”  or  the  “clair- 
voyant-in-chief  ”  himself,  and  you  shall  be  duly  informed. 

If  you  are  sick,  and  no  one  knows  what  the  matter  is 
with  you,  only  go  to  a  “clairvoyant,”  and  pay  the  fee 
(A.  J.  Davis’s  fee  was  only  $10),  and  you  will  be  told, 
whether  true  or  false  no  one,  not  even  yourself,  know¬ 
ing,  you  can  feel  satisfied,  and  marvel  at  the  “wonders 
of  clairvoyance.” 

Much  of  this  fault  belongs  to  the  ignorant  masses, 
who  pet,  patronize,  and  worship  these  self-styled  clair¬ 
voyants.  The  spurious  form  of  clairvoyance  is  further 
increased  by  the  purely  imaginary  field  of  investiga¬ 
tion  which  is  always  allowed  for  the  exercise  of  this 
alleged  occult  power.  Try  any  one  of  the  thousand  of 
these  advertising  “clairvoyants”  with  a  simple  test, 
and  you  will  find  they  cannot  tell  you  anything.  They 
cannot  tell  you  what  you  eat  for  your  dinner,  nor  what 
you  have  in  your  pocket.  They  can  tell  you  nothing 
of  “knowable”  objects,  so  that  you  could  detect  them 


CLAIRVOYANCE. 


115 

if  not  true.  And  yet,  mark  how  ever  ready  they  are 
to  expatiate  on  “  the  scenes  in  the  summer  land,’’ 
on  “  visions,”  and  things  wholly  imaginary,  and  of 
which  nothing  whatever  is  or  can  be  known  !  So,  Mr. 
A.  J.  Davis  can  expatiate  on  his  visits  to  the  moon  ;  but 
he  cannot  find  time  to  visit  Boston  to  find  out  whether 
departed  spirits  have  set  up  the  business  of  photograph¬ 
ing  among  us  or  not  ! 

Thus  it  is.  And  what  a  fruitful  field  is  that  invis¬ 
ible,  imaginary  world  !  Ah  !  that ’s  where  the  swarm 
of  “clairvoyants/’  and  “professors,”  and  “mediums,” 
and  “seers,”  and  “fortune-tellers”  have  come  from. 
The  conclusions  to  which  this  inquiry  conducts  us  may 
now  be  stated  :  — 

1.  The  most  convincing  manifestations  of  clairvoy¬ 
ance  have  occurred  in  cases  of  insanity  and  the  sponta¬ 
neous  trance.  Not  one  in  a  thousand  cases  of  the 
artificial  trance  manifest  clairvoyance.  Of  this  fact  I 
have  satisfied  myself  by  a  varied  experience  protracted 
now  for  many  years. 

2.  The  power  of  clairvoyance  is  sui  generis  in  this, 
that  the  vision  is  generally  confined  to  one  object  or 
thing  in  each  case.  Thus  a  clairvoyant  in  Paris  saw 
and  predicted  the  death  of  another  person  to  occur  in 
three  months,  when  he  could  not  see  his  own  death, 
which  occurred  within  a  few  days  of  the  time  when  his 
prognostication  of  the  death  of  the  other  party  was 
made.  In  other  cases  of  real  clairvoyance  the  power 
is  extended  to  one  thing  remote,  while  it  is  wholly 
inoperative  and  unconscious  of  the  things  near  by. 

Hence  the  manifest  mistake  and  perversion  of  this 
function  when  it  is  attempted  to  find  lost  property  by 
clairvoyance,  and  the  various  empirical  uses  made  of  it, 


IDEOLOGY. 


1 1 6 

as  may  be  seen  by  advertisements  in  all  the  papers. 
Diagnoses  and  prescriptions  for  sickness,  love,  and 
marriage,  fortune-telling,  and  descriptions  of  the  past 
and  the  future,  conversations  with  the  dead,  and  “  mes¬ 
sages  from  departed  spirits,”  besides  deeds  without  a 
name,  are  all  done  under  the  auspices  of  this  pretence 
of  clairvoyance. 

To  do  justice  to  this  feature  of  my  subject,  it  should 
be  •  stated  here  that  another  great  mistake  prevails 
among  those  who  rely  upon  clairvoyance  as  a  source 
of  information,  in  supposing  that  this  power  is  contin¬ 
ued  in  its  abnormal  (unreal)  manifestations  during  life. 
As  its  best  manifestations  depend  upon  some  disturb¬ 
ance  that  disease  has  made  in  the  nervous  system,  we 
find,  when  the  health  is  once  restored,  this  manifesta¬ 
tion  ceases.  Numerous  cases  reported  in  medical 
works  show  the  truthfulness  of  this  statement ;  and  in 
these  few  cases  of  artificial  trance,  in  which  a  spark  of 
clairvoyance  may  chance  to  become  manifest,  these  do 
not  last  long.  The  power  soon  fades  out,  and,  while 
the  medium  may  assume  his  ability  to  tell  you  what 
the  moon  is  made  of,  or  to  describe  a  thousand  other 
unknowable  objects  of  which  there  can  be  no  satis¬ 
factory  proof  whatever,  you  can  believe  just  as  much 
as  you  please  as  to  his  clairvoyance. 

As  to  the  appropriate  sphere  of  clairvoyance,  when 
developed  by  disease  or  otherwise  :  Bear  in  mind, 
clairvoyance  does  not  extend  beyond  the  wants  of  the 
organism  in  which  it  is  active.  And  to  whatever  ex¬ 
tent  this  function  may  have  been  abnormally  excited 
in  cases  of  disease,  yet  there  is  no  evidence  for  proving 
that  the  human  mind  has  any  faculty  by  which,  in  the 
trance  or  out,  it  can  extend  its  clairvoyance  beyond 
the  confines  of  the  world  we  inherit. 


CLAIRVOYANCE. 


ii  7 

It  is  boastingly  said  that  A.  J.  Davis  has  written 
twenty  volumes  in  this  clairvoyant  state,  and  in  which 
he  has  given  an  account  of  “worlds,”  “worlds,” 
“worlds,”  “ethereal,”  “aerial,”  and  imaginary,  and  of 
which  he  tells  many  wonderful  things.  Swedenborg 
published  some  sixty  volumes,  more  or  less,  of  the 
things  heard  and  seen  beyond  the  confines  of  the 
present  world.  And  characteristic  of  this  class  of 
visionists  who  see  beyond  the  fixed  stars,  they  excel  in 
“revelations”  and  the  “making  of  many  books,”  filled 
with  assumptions,  not  one  of  which  is  susceptible  of  a 
particle  of  proof.  They  cannot  be  proved,  because 
there  is  no  evidence  within  the  reach  of  science  appli¬ 
cable  to  the  subject;  and  hence  that  well-known  and 
universally  admitted  maxim  in  philosophy,  that  we 
should  not  assume  or  attempt  that  which  can  never 
be  proved. 


CHAPTER  X. 


THE  WITCHCRAFT  MADNESS. 


“  He  who  does  not  believe  in  a  witch  does  not  believe  in  the  Devil !  And  he  who 
does  not  believe  in  the  Devil  does  not  believe  in  God  !  And  he  who  does  not  believe 

p 

in  God  must  be  damned l  ” 


Gruner,  a  German  theologian,  who  died  in  1778,  tells 
us  of  one  of  his  clerical  brethren  who  preached  a  sermon 
on  witchcraft,  and  wound  up  with  the  above  statement. 
It  is  a  morceau  of  its  kind,  and  is  characteristic  of  the 
views  that  prevailed  in  Christendom  three  or  four  cen¬ 
turies  ago.  What,  now,  if  it  should  appear  that  but 
for  the  Bible  there  never  would  have  been  either  any 
theologians,  devils,  witches,  or  God  ? 

The  Bible  is  the  oldest  record  that  gives  us  any 
information  as  to  the  mania  of  witchcraft  and  its  death 
penalty.  Witchcraft  and  Christianity  are  identical. 
They  had  one  and  the  same  origin.  They  grew  from 
the  same  germs  of  “faith  ”  and  “fear  ;  ”  and,  says  Dr. 
Adam  Clarke,  the  Hebrew  term,  chash-shai-phah ,  —  she 
that  diligently  persists  in  bewitching ,  —  is  from  ka-shaph , 
—  he  seduced,  perverted,  bewitched.  Dr.  Clarke  adds 
(on  Gen.  xxii.  18)  that  the  corresponding  term  in  Arabic 
is  cashafa ,  which  has  the  same  meaning  as  the  Hebrew 
root,  which  signifies  not  only  to  seek  commerce  with 
God,  but  with  the  invisible  world.  From  this  showing, 

118 


THE  WITCHCRAFT  MADNESS.  II9 

it  is  witchcraft  to  seek  commerce  either  with  God  or 
with  the  invisible  world  ! 

Of  all  the  mental  epidemics  that  ever  cursed  human¬ 
ity,  this  bears  the  palm.  It  was  a  species  of  Christian 
madness  and  murder,  exceeding  in  monstrosity  the 
power  of  language  to  describe.  It  is  supposed  that  the 
millions  of  men,  women,  and  children  actually  put  to 
death  by  Christians,  under  a  bare  suspicion  of  witch¬ 
craft,  exceeded  the  entire  number  of  Christians  on  the 
face  of  the  globe  at  that  time  !  In  the  history  of  such 
a  madness,  an  epidemic  so  every  way  horrible,  so  wide¬ 
spread,  and  originated  as  this  was  by  Christianity,  we 
become  appalled  in  its  contemplation,  and  stand  aghast 
in  view  of  such  horrid  murder  and  bloodshed.  And  all 
done  in  the  name  of  Christianity !  What  ignorance, 
what  superstition,  what  credulity,  what  fear  and  wicked¬ 
ness,  have  been  mixed  up  under  this  term  !  Nay,  what 
cruelties,  what  horrible  murders,  under  the  sanction 
of  law  and  religion,  for  the  purpose  of  detecting  and 
exposing  this  alleged  crime  !  The  credulous  persecu¬ 
tion  started  with  the  assumption  of  an  old  boss  Devil, 
and  then,  in  the  train  of  this  frightful  idea ,  they  took 
it  for  granted  that  certain  persons  were  in  league  with 
this  imaginary  personage  ;  and  they  persecuted,  tor¬ 
mented,  and  put  them  to  death,  accordingly.  The 
following  statements  I  believe  to  be  clearly  demon¬ 
strable  :  — 

Witchcraft  has  never  been  known  except  in  those 
localities  where  the  masses  believed  in  some  form  of 
mediumship  through  which  they  could  hold  “  commerce 
with  invisible  nondescripts,”  real  or  imaginary.  The 
cruel  murders  have  God’s  command  for  their  commis¬ 
sion,  and  show  us  what  inconsistencies  human  beings 


120 


IDEOLOGY. 


in  mad  enthusiasm  will  commit.  How  much  this  wide¬ 
spread  madness  was  originated  by  ignorance  and  the 
Bible,  it  need  not  be  difficult  for  us  now  to  see ;  nor 
how  much  the  fanciful  and  the  absurd  and  ludicrous 
would  become  mixed. 

Indeed,  the  whole  of  witchcraft  may  be  said  to  have 
been  the  work  of  excited  marvellousness,  as  is  manifest 
by  the  testimony  and  recantations  of  numerous  persons 
who  had  previously  accused  themselves  of  this  horrible 
crime  ;  for  many  such  recantations  were  made,  both  by 
those  who  had  confessed  to  the  charge  of  witchcraft, 
and  also  by  the  juries  who  had  sat  upon  their  trials. 
At  such  times  the  human  mind  loses  its  self-control ; 
and  such  people  as  mediums  are  made  to  affirm  things 
of  themselves  that  are  not  true.  Unable  to  discrimi- 
nate  between  objective  and  subjective  knowledge,  they 
describe  “things  seen  and  heard  ”  which  have  no  exist¬ 
ence  except  in  a  mind  excited  by  the  idea  of  “  spirits  ” 
or  some  revelation  alleged  to  have  “come  from  the 
invisible  world.”  There  is  a  characteristic  aptness  in 
this  class  of  persons  to  exaggerate  in  all  the  stories  they 
tell  about  the  “  Devil  ”  or  “'spirits  ”  from  “the  summer- 
land  ;  ”  and  I  have  here  to  remark,  that  there  is  the 
same  tendency  among  both  classes  to  the  invention  of 
odd  and  fanciful  terms  and  names  in  the  accounts  they 
give  of  the  “things  seen  and  heard,”  both  in  the 
“summer-land,”  so-called,  and  in  the  regions  far  below. 

In  all  the  accounts  given  us  in  the  “confessions  ”  of 
the  bewitched,  we  find  a  profusion  of  quaint  and  fanci¬ 
ful  names  like  the  following  :  — 

Titty,  Jack,  Tom,  Piggin,  Tyffin,  etc.  The  far-famed 
witch  of  Warboys,  England,  confessed  herself  “  under 
the  control  ”  of  nine  spirits,  three  of  which  were  cousins 


THE  WITCHCRAFT  MADNESS. 


1 2  I 


by  the  name  of  “Smack,”  the  names  of  the  others 
being  “Blue,”  “Pluck,”  “  White,”  “  Catch,”  “Calicut,” 
and  “Hardname.”  Another  witch  confessed  that  she 
had  three  “spirits,” — one  like  a  cat,  which  she  called 
“Lightfoot;”  another  like  a  toad,  which  she  called 
“Lunch  ;”  and  a  third  like  a  weasel,  which  she  called 
“  Makeshift.” 

The  counterpart  to  these  fancies  is  found  in  modern 
mediumship,  in  the  names  invented  for  the  different 
spirits  which  communicate  through  them.  Thus,  in 
the  invention  of  odd  names,  the  witches  led  off  in  the 
following  style  :  — 

“Zellianelle,  Heatti,  Bonus,  Vagothe,  Plisos,  Sother, 
Osech,  Unicus,  Beezlebub,  Dax,  Komm,  Komm.” 

This  nonsensical  jargon,  we  are  assured,  when  re¬ 
peated  backwards  “repelled  the  spirit,”  who  left  be¬ 
hind  him  the  smell  of  brimstone  ! 

Here  is  another,  and,  like  the  above,  was  to  be 
repeated  slowly,  with  numerous  ceremonies  and  motions 
made  with  the  hands,  — the  last  two  words  to  be  uttered 
quickly  and  with  a  sort  of  scream,  which  attracted  the 
“  spirit  with  great  power”  :  — 

“  Lalle,  Bachera,  Magotte,  Baphia  Dajam,  Vagoth 
Heneche,  Amme  Nagaz  Adomator,  Raphael,  Immanuel, 
Christus,  Tetragrammaton,  Agra,  Jod,  Loi,  Konig,  Konig.” 

But  the  one  in  greatest  repute  was  as  follows,  and 
was  to  be  read  backwards,  with  the  exception  of  the 
last  two  words  :  — 

“  Anion,  Lalle,  Sabolas,  Sado,  Pater,  Aziel,  Adone,  Sado, 
Vagoth,  Agra,  Jod,  Baphra,  Komm  !  Komm  !  ” 


122 


IDEOLOGY. 


Such,  then,  are  some  of  the  exhibitions  of  mediumism 
that  have  come  down  to  us  from  former  ages,  and  as  if 
only  to  be  repeated  in  the  mediumistic  literature  of  the 
present  day.  Nor  would  this  trash  be  worthy  of  one 
moment’s  notice  if  it  were  not  necessary  in  attempting 
an  explanation  of  those  conditions  of  the  human  mind 
produced  more  or  less  in  all  purely  mental  epidemics. 

In  the  following  details  we  shall  find  the  justification 
of  a  remark,  that  modern  mediumism  is  the  old  one 
without  the  Devil,  in  a  new  dress.  In  the  excitement 
of  credulity  and  marvellousness,  in  the  wonderful 
stories  told,  in  the  number  of  the  “spirits”  engaged 
in  mediumizing  mortals,  in  extravagant  assumptions, 
and  in  the  invention  and  use  of  cabalistic  names, 
modern  mediumism  bears  the  palm  ;  and  in  this  behalf 
surely  “the  Poughkeepsie  seer”  has  fairly  exceeded 
some  of  his  “illustrious  predecessors.”  As  it  would 
not  be  possible  for  me  here  to  quote  from  one  in  a 
hundred  of  the  books,  papers,  “messages,”  “jmedic- 
tions,”  “manifestations,”  “visions,”  “tests,”  and  “rev¬ 
elations  ”  which  have  come  either  from  mediumism  or 

■ 

from  “the  Poughkeepsie  seer”  during  the  past  few 
years,  I  must  content  myself  with  a  few  specimens 
only.  In  the  ranks  of  mediumism,  Mr.  A.  J.  Davis 
may  be  said  to  be  “  chief  apostle,”  as  he  is  ahead  of  all 
“seers”  in  the  “abundance  of  his  revelation,”  the 
extravagance  of  his  claims,  and  the  invention  of  odd 
terms. 

Thus,  we  find  him  on  his  return  from  the  visits  he 
makes  to  heaven,  or  what  he  denominates  “  the  sum¬ 
mer  land,”  and  he  brings  with  him  an  account  of  the 
“scenes,”  persons,  places,  and  things  he  saw  there, 
which  he  tells  us  of  in  the  following  names  :  — 


THE  WITCHCRAFT  MADNESS. 


123 


Sturnas,  Councilium,  Apotravella  [Mr.  Davis  says  he  got 
the  pronunciation  of  this  word  from  the  angels,  with  great 
care],  Ali-Nineka,  Martillas,  Ephelotus,  Ore,  Zellabingen, 
Lindenstein,  Moraneski,  Monazolappa,  Acadelaco,  Mian- 
tovesta,  Pealoleski,  Senelocius,  Archelarium,  Verodario, 
Ulcimira,  La-Samosata,  Archibulum,  Aurealia,  Oahulah, 
Wallavesta,  Passaeta,  Arabula,  &c.,  &c. 

Up  to  the  present  time,  Mr.  Davis  has  continued  the 
use  of  these  uncouth  terms,  which  some  of  the  medi- 
umistic  papers  have  classed  under  the  head  of  “  Sub¬ 
lime  Revelations;”  and  here  is  another  specimen. 
Mr.  Davis  says  :  — 

\ 

“  Advance,  my  baskatalla  (bird),  for  thou  art  our  beloved 
opeathelos  (student),  and  the  time  future  is  thine  to  become 
whatso  thou  wilt  •  for  thou  art  even  now  fit  to  stir  within  others 
the  power  of  thought,  and  to  meditate  with  the  happy  Para- 
lorella.  The  distant  pantrello  will  invite  and  teach  thee  to 
comprehend  thy  God,  hid  within  the  fragrant  zoralia  and  the 
musical  porilleumP 

Is  not  that  “  sublime  ”  ? 

It  has  been  stuff  such  as  this  which  has  given  to 
mediumistic  literature  the  name,  “  the  liturgy  of  Dead 
Sea  apes.”  And  why  not?  Mediums  have  them¬ 
selves  authorized  the  use  of  this  term  by  declaring 
that  they  had  “messages”  from  cats,  horses,  dogs, 
and  apes  ;  and  some  of  them  have  declared,  moreover, 
that  the  highest  specimens  of  manhood  were  the  issues 
of  spirits  with  the  orang-outang ! 

In  the  mediumistic  power  for  concocting  cabalistic 
terms,  we  can,  I  think,  willingly  yield  the  palm  to  Mr. 
Davis.  His  first  effort  in  this  line  was  in  1844,  when 
he  uttered  five  lectures,  which  he  called  “  Clairmative- 
ness  ;  ”  and  this  he  explained  as  a  “compound  word,” 
which  literally  signified  “clearly  reversed;”  because 


124 


IDEOLOGY. 


when  he  was  magnetized,  or  “  under  spirit  control/’  his 
mind  was  “  clearly  reversed, And  that  the  mind  was 
completely  reversed  when  inditing  this  kind  of  jargon, 
there  need,  I  think,  be  no  manner  of  doubt. 

Among  numerous  other  experiments  which  have  dis¬ 
tinguished  modern  mediumism,  such  as  placing  iron 
rings  over  the  head,  which  could  not  be  removed  by 
human  hands,  and  the  like,  we  are  reminded  of  one 
upon  the  arm  in  Shakespeare  :  — 

“  Look,  how  I  am  bewitched ;  behold  mine  arm 
Is  like  a  blasted  sapling,  withered  up.” 

In  ancient  times  the  arm  of  the  medium  was  withered ; 
but  now  the  names  of  the  dead  are  written  in  raised 
letters  upon  the  medium’s  arm,  without  the  use  of  any 
visible  means.  There  might  not  be  anything  seriously 
objectionable  in  this,  except,  when  you  are  requested 
to  write  the  name  first  on  a  piece  of  paper,  and  then, 
after  doing  so,  to  be  told  that  it  is  your  dead  relative 
that  has  withered  the  medium’s  arm  in  the  manner 
stated. 

The  above  shows  us  what  it  is  that  constitutes  saint- 
ship  in  the  ranks  of  mediumism.  Here  also  is  another 
characteristic  morsel  from  the  Banner  of  Light :  — 

“  But  the  advice  I  will  give  you  is  this  :  Have  more  faith — 
pray  earnestly  that  God  will  give  you  happier  thoughts,  and 
not  suffer  you  to  be  led  into  temptation.  Do  not  visit  the 
mediums  in  your  present  excited  condition ;  but  see  to  it,  to  a 
fair  extent  of  your  means,  that  they  are  provided  with  fuel , 
wood ,  and  raiment.  To  be  more  specific :  if  you  can  spare 
fifty  dollars  without  seriously  impairing  your  means  to  pay 
your  debts,  and  appropriate  it  to  the  aiding  of  these  poor, 
traduced,  and  slandered  instruments  for  propagating  the 
beautiful  truth  of  spirit  communion,  I  think  that  the  evil 
spirits  that  now  disturb  your  repose  will  flee  from  you,  as 
vermin  do  where  there  is  nothing  left  for  them  to  feed  upon.” 


THE  WITCHCRAFT  MADNESS. 


125 


And,  in  the  “mood  of  quoting,”  here  is  another  from 
the  Boston  Journal  of  Oct.  21,  1861  :  — 

“The  beauties  of  mediumism  are  shown  in  the  case  of  two 
young  married  men  of  Searsburg,  Vt.,  who  left  for  California 
some  years  since,  and  returned  home  recently  to  find  their 
wives  remarried,  who,  having  heard  nothing  from  them  since 
their  departure,  applied  to  a  young  lady  medium,  who  was 
very  exact  in  describing  to  them  the  death  and  burial  of 
their  husbands,  the  date  of  the  funeral,  and  the  disease  of 
which  they  died.  Their  wives,  supposing  this  to  be  reliable, 
remarried,  and  there  was  a  funny  time  when  the  long-absent 
husbands  returned.” 

They  can  believe  themselves  under  the  “  control  ”  of 
“more  than  twelve  legions  of  angels,”  and  engaged  in 
a  movement  which  they  have  announced  as  the  “inau¬ 
guration  of  heaven  on  earth;”  and  all  this  while  this 
epidemic  has  been  characterized  and  stamped  with 
some  of  the  most  egregious  and  palpable  falsehoods 
which  the  “father  of  lies”  himself  ever  uttered. 

Witchcraft  was  two  hundred  years  ago  preached  as  a 
Bible  doctrine.  It  was  believed,  feared,  preached  on 
Sunday.  It  was  the  subject  of  daily  conversation  and 
prayer.  The  idea  was  crystallized  in  the  minds  of  the 
people.  The  ministers  of  religion,  the  churches,  the 
schools,  and  the  civil  magistrates  were  infected  with  it. 
Hence  no  “revival  of  religion,”  so  called,  no  sermon  or 
prayer  from  priest  or  monk,  was  ever  more  the  result 
of  Christianity  than  was  this  curse  called  witchcraft. 
The  entire  people  believed  in  that  thing,  and  the  idea 
of  the  crime  induced  it ;  and,  when  they  imagined  any 
one  a  wizard  or  a  witch,  the  next  idea  was  death  at  the 
stake,  in  obedience  to  what  the  Bible  says  on  the 
subject. 

All  forms  of  witchcraft  were  developed  by  the  well- 


126 


IDEOLOGY. 


known  elements  which  enter  into  all  forms  of  mental 
contagion.  The  excitement,  the  fear  of  witches  and 
wizards,  the  presence  of  men,  women,  and  children 
believ*ed  to  be  in  league  with  the  Devil ;  and  under  this 
dominant  idea,  like  mediums,  under  the  “control”  of 
the  Devil  or  his  imps,  whatever  happened  only  tended 
to  spread  the  contagion.  In  this  excitement,  innocent 
people  were  overcome,  and  thus,  compelled  to  accuse 
themselves  and  their  neighbors,  until  they  came  to  con¬ 
sider  each  other  bewitched  ;  and  in  this  way  the  con¬ 
tagion  was  spread  by  the  laws  of  sympathetic  imitation , 
until  whole  families,  neighborhoods,  localities,  and 
countries  were  scourged  with  this  terrible  mischief. 
What,  indeed,  could  be  imagined  more  likely  to  subdue 
and  bewitch  an  ignorant  and  highly  susceptible  person 
than  to  charge  him  with  witchcraft,  as  many  weak- 
minded,  nervous  old  women  have  been,  from  mere  envy, 
hatred,  or  the  love  of  mischief  ?  The  belief  in  the 
idea,  the  bare  possibility  of  witchcraft,  strikes  through 
the  soul  with  horror,  reaching  to  the  very  inmost  of  one’s 
susceptibilities.  The  bare  suspicion  of  the  taint,  first 
uttered  in  a  whisper,  soon  spreads  from  ear  to  ear, 
and  strikes  terror  through  the  neighborhood  and  the 
country  where  the  idea  of  witchcraft  prevails.  The 
suspected  one  is  feared,  despised,  and  more  to  be 
shunned  than  the  plague,  or  the  very  Devil  himself ; 
and  thus  it  is  the  horror  and  fear  which  follow  in  the 
wake  of  the  suspicion  of  a  crime  so  monstrous  pros¬ 
trates  the  human  judgment,  and  leaves  in  its  place 
nothing  but  fear  and  mischief,  such  as  have  prevailed 
under  this  madness. 

There  is  not  a  case  of  witchcraft  upon  record  but 
would  confirm  the  statements  here  made.  A  lady  in 


THE  WITCHCRAFT  MADNESS. 


127 


New  York  consulted  a  so-called  fortune-teller,  and  she 
was  so  much  “impressed”  with  his  prediction  of  her 
death  that  she  died  the  next  day.  The  “seer”  told 
her  if  she  looked  into  a  tub  of  water  on  going  4iome 
she  would  see  her  coffin,  in  which  she  was  soon  to  be 
buried.  On  returning  to  her  house  she  looked  into  the 
tub  of  water  with  this  idea  in  her  mind,  expecting,  of 
course,  to  see  her  coffin,  and  that  idea  produced  the 
sight  she  had  expected  to  see ;  and,  her  nervous  system 
being  too  feeble  for  the  shock,  she  died  as  the  “  fortune¬ 
teller”  had  predicted.  So  in  witchcraft.  At  such 
times,  persons  of  this  temperament  become  “im¬ 
pressed,”  excited,  and  deranged,  and  in  this  condition 
the  mind  may  be  moulded  into  any  shape  which  the 
prevalent  whims  or  superstitious  notions  may  chance 
to  give  it.  The  points  I  make  here  are  these  :  — 

That  the  belief  in  witchcraft,  the  idea  of  the  state 
of  things  signified  by  this  term,  is  sufficient  for  explain¬ 
ing  all  the  phenomena,  albeit  there  were  no  personal 
devils  in  existence;  and  hence  the  subject  discussed  in 
these  pages  is  one  of  surpassing  interest,  as  we  may 
learn  from  it  the  laws  which  control  the  human  mind ; 
and,  withal,  the  elements  and  the  conditions  which 
have  entered  into  the  composition  of  the  greatest 
mental  epidemic  that  ever  cursed  the  world.  Its  cog¬ 
nate  epidemic  is  prevalent  at  the  present  time,  under 
the  name  of  mediumism  ;  for  both  these  epidemics  owe 
their  origin  to  the  germinal  idea  of  alleged  communi¬ 
cation  from  the  invisible  world , —  albeit,  the  “control¬ 
ling  spirit  ”  in  the  former  epidemic  was  believed  to  be 
that  old  boss  Devil ;  and  in  the  latter  it  is  believed  to 
be  some  “guardian  spirit,”  or  other  ideal  personage, 
as  the  medium’s  fancy  may  happen  to  be.  And  thus 


128 


IDEOLOGY. 


it  is,  as  we  shall  find,  this  idea  of  the  invisible  world 
has  been  more  potent  in  ages  past  in  the  generation 
of  mental  epidemics  than  any,  or,  indeed,  all  other 
caused  put  together. 

We  lament  the  appalling  destruction  of  human  life 
that  swept  over  our  land  during  the  four  years  of  war 
ending  in  1865.  Its  victims  were  numbered  by  hun¬ 
dreds  of  thousands.  And  yet  not  so  many  lives  have 
been  destroyed  during  this  bloody  war  as  have  been 
sacrificed  to  the  Moloch  of  witchcraft.  Indeed,  the 
mind  is  appalled  by  the  contemplation  of  the  horrid 
murders  that  have  been  perpetrated  in  ages  past  under 
the  prevalence  of  this  terrible  mania.  Nor  could  the 
statistics  of  these  murders,  with  their  concomitant 
details,  be  narrated  here.  Germany,  France,  Italy, 
England,  Scotland,  and  the  Puritans  of  this  country  suc¬ 
cessively  run  mad  on  this  subject,  and  the  magistrates, 
with  the  clergy,  led  the  multitude  into  the  mischief. 
An  epidemic  purely  spiritual  seized  upon  the  nations. 
The  belief  in  “spirits,”  “imps,”  and  “devils”  was  well 
nigh  universal,  and  the  common  events  of  life  were 
surrendered  to  impress  all  into  the  support  of  their 
notions  about  the  Devil.  No  one  could  believe  himself 
secure  in  his  soul,  his  body,  or  his  property  from 
the  spiritual  machinations  of  the  invisible  hosts  that 
swarmed  about  him  in  the  air  he  breathed. 

If  he  found  himself  sick,  it  was  the  Devil  that  caused 
his  pain.  If  the  flames  consumed  his  house,  it  was 
because  it  was  set  on  fire  by  the  “spirits.”  If  his 
cattle  died  from  murrain,  they  were  believed  to  have 
been  killed  by  the  omnipresent  Devil,  which  was  sup¬ 
posed  to  have  possession  of  some  one  of  his  neighbors. 
And  under  this  silly  notion,  how  many  tens  of  thou- 


THE  WITCHCRAFT  MADNESS. 


129 


sands  of  innocent  men,  women,  and  children  have  been 
falsely  accused  and  put  to  death  ! 

“  ’T  is  all  one,  — 

To  be  a  witch  or  to  be  accounted  one.” 

The  suspicion  was  in  every  mind,  the  accusation 
upon  every  tongue  ;  and  for  ages  the  civil  tribunals  of 
the  most  enlightened  nations  were  occupied  with  these 
trials.  And,  when  it  is  considered  on  what  kinds  of 
evidence  the  courts  of  justice  took  it  upon  themselves 
to  convict  of  witchcraft,  and,  further,  that  a  conviction 
was  followed  by  a  sentence  of  death,  it  is  easy  to  see 
how  it  was  that  tens  of  thousands  fell  victims  to  that 
absurd  notion  about  the  imaginary  inhabitants  of  the 
invisible  world.  In  many  cities  of  Germany  the  aver¬ 
age  number  executed  for  witchcraft  was  no  less  than 
twelve  each  week,  —  more  than  six  hundred  being 
thus  annually  murdered. 

In  the  year  1515,  five  hundred  witches  were  burned 
at  Geneva  in  the  course  of  three  months  ;  and  in  one 
year,  one  thousand  were  executed  in  the  diocese  of 
Como.  It  is  believed  that  in  Germany  alone  not 
less  than  one  hundred  thousand  victims  suffered  death 
from  this  cause  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries. 

In  England  witchcraft  was  held  in  great  abhorrence, 
and  in  the  course  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  no 
less  than  thirty  thousand  persons  suffered  death  for 
suspicion  of  witchcraft ;  and  some  of  these  poor  wretches 
were  condemned  by  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  a  man  univer¬ 
sally  renowned  on  the  strength  of  his  understanding 
and  the  purity  of  his  character. 

I  have  now  before  me  numerous  pamphlets  giving 


130 


IDEOLOGY. 


accounts  of  those  times,  and  containing  pictures  of  old 
women  accompanied  with  a  cat.  In  one  of  them  we 
are  told  that  in  1706  a  Mrs.  Hicks  and  her  daughter, 
a  child  nine  years  of  age,  were  hanged  at  Huntingdon, 
for  selling  their  souls  to  Satan,  tormenting  and  destroy¬ 
ing  their  neighbors  by  making  them  vomit  pins,  and 
raising  a  storm  so  that  a  ship  was  almost  lost,  — which 
storm,  it  seems,  was  raised  by  the  diabolical  arts  of  put¬ 
ting  off  their  stockings  and  making  a  lather  of  soap. 

Among  all  nations  witchcraft  has  always  been  held 
in  abhorrence,  but  was  not  publicly  proceeded  against 
as  a  crime  until  the  year  1484,  when  prosecutions  com¬ 
menced  under  the  direction  of  Pope  Innocent  VIII.,  and 
for  more  than  two  centuries  Europe  was  in  a  state  of 
tumult  and  consternation  in  consequence  of  the  trials 
and  executions  of  persons  accused  of  this  so-called  crime. 

The  last  murder  of  a  witch  in  England  took  place  in 
1722,  and  the  statutes  against  witchcraft  were  repealed 
in  1735.  This  gave  such  offence  to  a  respectable  sect  of 
Christians  in  Scotland  that,  in  their  annual  confession 
of  personal  and  national  sins,  they  complained  of  “  the 
penal  statutes  against  witches  having  been  repealed  by 
Parliament,  contrary  to  the  express  law  of  God.”  The 
Christians  who  emigrated  from  that  country  where  such 
views  prevailed,  of  course,  brought  with  them  those 
ideas  of  God  and  an  evil  Devil,  which  resulted  in  simi¬ 
lar  horrors  here.  The  first  person  convicted  of  this 
crime  in  New  England  was  a  poor  woman  named  Mary 
Oliver.  She  was  convicted  at  Springfield,  on  her  own 
confession,  in  1650.  In  the  following  year  three  per¬ 
sons  were  executed  in  Boston,  Mass.,  all  of  whom 
asserted  their  innocence.  In  1655  Ann  Hibbins,  the 
widow  of  a  man  of  respectability  in  Boston,  was  con- 


THE  WITCHCRAFT  MADNESS.  1 3  I 

victed  of  witchcraft,  and  executed.  This  sentence  was 
disapproved  of  by  many  influential  men,  and,  although 
several  executions  for  this  offence  subsequently  took 
place  in  Connecticut,  no  other  person  suffered  death  in 
Massachusetts  until  the  lapse  of  nearly  thirty  years. 

What  is  generally  called  the  “  Salem  Witchcraft  ” 
commenced  in  1691,  and  furnishes  a  melancholy  illus¬ 
tration  as  to  the  fate  which  the  so-called  manifestations 
from  the  invisible  world  will  be  likely  to  meet  with 
where  ignorance  and  superstition  prevail.  Persons  re¬ 
puted  to  possess  pure  principles  and  sound  understand¬ 
ings  were  loud  in  their  denunciations  of  witchcraft,  and 
anxious  to  bring  the  offenders  to  condign  punishment. 
Reason  was  for  a  time  deposed,  and  fanaticism,  with  her 
gloomy  attendants,  and  the  scourge,  the  stake,  and  the 
gallows,  reigned  triumphant.  The  history  of  this  period 
cannot  be  dwelt  upon  without  pain.  In  about  a  year 
and  a  half  nineteen  persons  were  hanged,  and  one 
pressed  to  death,  eight  more  were  condemned,  making 
twenty-eight  in  all  ;  fifty  others  confessed  themselves 
witches,  none  of  whom  were  executed ;  but  one  hun¬ 
dred  and  fifty  were  imprisoned,  and  two  hundred  more 
were  accused,  when  the  delusion  suddenly  vanished, 
and  men  began  to  wonder  at  the  unjust  and  sanguinary 
part  which  they  had  been  performing.  The  special 
session  of  the  court  was  abruptly  closed,  and  the  accused 
and  those  already  condemned  were  set  at  liberty. 

The  clergy  of  New  England,  it  is  very  evident,  did 
more  than  any  other  class  to  foster  this  delusion  in  this 
country.  It  broke  out  in  a  minister’s  family  in  Salem, 
Mass.,  where  the  mania  raged  in  its  utmost  fury,  and 
to  this  day  history  perpetuates  the  memory  of  this 
mischievous  epidemic  under  the  name  of  the  “Salem 


132 


IDEOLOGY. 


Witchcraft.”  The  clergy  believing  in  witchcraft,  they 
prayed  it  and  they  preached  it  into  the  minds  of  the 
people.  They  published  circulars  (one  was  issued  from 
Cambridge  College)  about  it,  they  addressed  the  courts 
of  justice  where  the  witches  were  tried,  and  they  pub¬ 
lished  exaggerated  accounts  of  the  alleged  phenomena, 
by  which  the  minds  of  the  people  were  inflamed  and 
kept  in  a  condition  for  the  disgraceful  deeds  that  pre¬ 
vailed  in  those  days. 

Is  was  ignorance  bad  enough  for  the  ministers  of  relig¬ 
ion  to  encourage  this  dreadful  epidemic  in  the  manner 
above  stated,  when  we  see  one  of  them  (Rev.  Cotton 
Mather,  whose  bones  are  buried  only  a  short  distance 
from  the  spot  where  I  am  now  writing),  and  he  a  leader 
among  his  class,  —  when,  I  say,  we  behold  such  an  one 
present  near  the  gallows  when  one  of  those  unhappy 
victims  is  about  to  be  choked  to  death,  the  spectacle 
becomes  melancholy  indeed.  And  that  victim  was 
himself  also  a  clergyman,  the  Rev.  George  Burroughs. 
The  latter  was  an  Episcopalian,  while  the  former  was  a 
Calvinistic  Congregationalist,  and  hence  it  is  easy  to 
see  how  much  sectarian  hate  may  have  had  to  do  in 
exciting  Mather’s  conduct  on  that  occasion.  Burroughs 
was  a  portly  man,  and  evincing  more  than  common 
physical  strength,  this  was  considered  by  the  Court  as 
satisfactory  evidence  that  he  was  certainly  a  wizard, 
and  so  he  was  sent  in  a  cart  to  the  gallows. 

The  pious  Cotton  Mather  aided  in  his  conviction, 
and,  when  this  unhappy  man  stood  under  the  gallows 
with  the  fatal  rope  around  his  neck,  Mather  went  near 
to  him,  where  he  remained  to  see  the  deed  done ;  nay, 
he  even  addressed  the  spectators,  and  told  them  not  to 
believe  that  the  criminal  then  about  to  be  hung  was 


THE  WITCHCRAFT  MADNESS. 


*33 


any  clergyman  at  all.  He  thought  that  his  having  been 
convicted  of  witchcraft  on  Mather’s  testimony  deprived 
him  entirely  of  his  clerical  character.  My  own  opinion 
is  that  such  a  conviction  would  be  one  of  the  best  evi¬ 
dences  that  could  be  offered  of  Mr.  Burroughs’s  truly 
clerical  character,  as  one  of  the  essential  prerequisites 
to  the  clerical  profession  of  that  day  was  a  firm  and 
unshaken  belief  in  a  personal  Devil,  and  in  that  belief 
Cotton  Mather  and  his  victim  George  Burroughs  cer¬ 
tainly  did  not  differ  very  much. 

In  the  contemplation  of  that  stupendous  mania  which 
has  prevailed  under  the  name  of  witchcraft,  it  would 
seem  necessary  that  we  should  pause  in  the  examina¬ 
tion  of  that  germ  whence  all  this  terrible  mischief 
originated  ;  and,  as  we  do  so,  we  shall  find  that  not 
merely  this  gigantic  mischief  alone,  but  also  all  of  the  most 
prominent  forms  of  fanaticism  have  originated  in  alleged 
communication  from  the  invisible  world.  So  it  was  in 
witchcraft,  in  Mohammedanism,  so  it  was  with  the 
French  Prophets,  so  with  Ann  Lee  and  the  Shakers,  so 
also  with  the  Mormons,  and  with  modern  mediums  at 
the  present  time.  About  the  “revelations  ”  of  Astron¬ 
omy,  Geology,  and  Mathematics  there  can  be  no  mis¬ 
take,  because  nothing  is  taken  for  granted.  But  not  so 
in  Spiritualism  and  alleged  intercourse  with  the  inhabi¬ 
tants  of  another  world.  All  such  “revelations”  are  a 
nose  of  wax,  a  kaleidoscope  :  they  vary  and  assume  as 
many  shapes  and  colors  as  there  are  whims  and  notions 
in  the  brains  of  the  parties  who  make  them.  I  have 
already  referred  to  the  dements  of  credulity ,  fear,  and 
ignorance ,  and  we  shall  find  that  wherever  these  condi¬ 
tions  prevail  in  any  community  there,  “  like  priest  like 
people,”  the  mass  are  ready  to  become  the  victims  of 


134 


IDEOLOGY. 


this  Idea  in  respect  to  alleged  intercourse  with  the 
imaginary  inhabitants  of  another  world. 

Let  those  who  startle  at  the  historical  details  of 
witchcraft  bear  in  mind  that  the  germinal  error  of  that 
delusion  prevails  at  the  present  day,  and  to  an  extent 
far  beyond  the  days  of  Matthew  Hopkins,  the  popular 
“witch-finder,”  and  of  Increase  and  Cotton  Mather,  the 
priestly  persecutors  of  the  witches.  That  error,  as  I 
have  stated,  consisted  in  the  unproved  and  unprovable 
assumption  that  a  certain  class  of  persons  were  “  under 
spirit  control.”  These  persons  were  then  denominated 
wizards  and  witches  ;  but  at  the  present  time  they  are 
called  mediums.  They  were  anciently,  as  at  the  pres¬ 
ent  time,  alleged  to  be  under  “spirit  influence,”  and, 
nolens  volens ,  they  were  the  mediums  through  which 
imaginary  “spirits,”  “devils,”  or-  “goblins  damned” 
made  certain  demonstrations  of  their  power. 

As  to  the  personal  identity  of  these  ideal  or  invisible 
“  spiritual  ”  operators  upon  the  nervous  systems  of  these 
credulous  people,  nothing  is  or  can  be  known.  The 
personality  of  an  invisible  witness  cannot  be  proved. 
How  will  you  cross-examine  a  witness  y'ou  cannot  see  ? 
The  thing  is  an  impossibility,  an  unqualified,  absolute 
impossibility.  And  hence  it  is  that  all  that  is  alleged 
in  respect  to  what  “spirits”  or  “devils”  can  or  cannot 
do  are  matters  taken  for  granted  ;  they  are  figments  of 
the  imagination  which  the  credulous  may  believe,  but 
they  are  not  susceptible  of  demonstration. 

How  much  longer  this  mania  might  have  prevailed 
in  this  country,  but  for  the  timely  labors  of  a  Boston 
merchant  by  the  name  of  Robert  Calef,  it  is  not  easy  to 
conjecture.  In  1699  Mr.  Calef  addressed  a  number  of 
caustic  letters  to  this  same  Cotton  Mather  upon  the 


THE  WITCHCRAFT  MADNESS. 


135 


part  he  had  acted  in  promoting  this  delusion,  and  in 
which  the  merchant  challenged  and  urged  the  priest  to 
an  investigation  and  review  of  the  whole  subject,  which 
the  bigoted  minister  never  found  himself  willing  to 
undertake.  In  Mr.  Calef’s  Book  on  Witchcraft,  first 
published  in  London  in  1700,  he  exposes  numerous 
characteristic  traits  in  Mr.  Mather’s  character,  con¬ 
nected  with  his  management  of  witches,  and  it  is  quite 
certain  that  we  are  indebted  to  this  “  Boston  merchant  ” 
for  the  first  successful  check  that  was  put  upon  that 
dreadful  scourge  in  this  country ;  and  it  affords  me 
pleasure  to  record  the  name  of  one  who,  at  that  early 
period,  took  such  accurate  views  of  this  subject,  and  who 
did  more  than  any  other  person,  perhaps,  to  break  the 
terrible  spell  with  which  the  people  of  that  dark  age 
were  bound. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


MODERN  WITCHCRAFT. 

It  will,  I  am  sure,  be  admitted  that  there  is,  at  the 
present  age,  by  far  too  much  science,  too  much  intelli¬ 
gence  generally,  among  all  classes  of  the  people,  for 
repetition  of  the  Bible  sort  of  witchcraft.  Indeed,  there 
is  too  much  knowledge  generally  of  Nature’s  order  and 
laws  for  Christianity  to  prosper  as  it  did  a  few  years 
ago.  And  whereas  theology  defines  the  Christian  sort 
of  witchcraft  as  “  commerce  with  the  invisible  world,” 
upon  a  bare  suspicion  of  which  Christians  murdered 
millions  of  their  own  kith  and  kin,  here  allow  me  to  ask 
if  Christianity  and  Christian  or  Bible  witchcraft  and 
modern  mediumship  do  not  each  of  them  assume  to 
have  “intercourse  with  the  invisible  world  ”  ?  Nor  is 
it  for  me  or  for  science  to  undertake  to  decide  which  of 
these  claims  or  definitions  is  true,  or  whether  or  not 
they  may  not  each  of  them  be  false.  All  we  know  or 
affirm  is,  that  each  claims  to  have  “intercourse  with 
the  invisible  world,”  and  where  that  is,  who  knows  ?  I 
can  freely  admit  that  I  know  many  good  people  that 
are  Christians  and  believe  in  modern  mediumship  ;  and 
while  I  should,  if  compelled  to  choose  between  the  two, 
much  prefer  the  modern  form  of  “intercourse  with  the 
invisible  world,”  I  will  state  what  is  plainly  the  parallel 

136 


MODERN  WITCHCRAFT. 


137 


between  the  Christian  form  of  witchcraft  and  the  mod¬ 
ern  form  of  mediumship. 

1.  In  the  general  idea  whence  the  power  comes, — 
intercourse  with  the  invisible  world. 

2.  In  respect  to  what  is  called  the  “  control/’  the 
subjugation  of  human  thought.  The  witches  of  the 
Bible  were  possessed.  They  were  never  consulted ; 
and  it  is  reported  of  a  medium  in  San  Francisco  that 
her  control  said  :  — 

“  I  entranced  this  medium  in  spite  of  herself ;  and  I  could 
keep  her  entranced  for  a  year,  and  she  could  not  prevent  it 
to  save  her  soul.” 

3.  The  Bible  witches  had  their  limbs  withered,  and 
texts  raised  on  their  bodies,  by  the  devils  and  their  imps ; 
and  modern  mediums  have  raised  letters  made  on  their 
arms. 

4.  Odd  methods  :  Riding  through  the  air  from  place 
to  place  on  a  broomstick ;  and  modern  mediums  are 
reported  to  have  been  transported  through  the  air ;  also 
the  zig-zag  way  of  talking  by  raps  on  the  table-leg  are 
odd,  very  odd. 

5.  The  Bible  witches  had  their  midnight  raids  ;  and 
modern  mediums  have  their  dark  circles. 

6.  Modern  mediums  are  reported  as  being  in  a  num¬ 
ber  of  places  at  one  and  the  same  time  ;  and  so  the 
Christian  witches  were  carried  through  the  air,  as  Jesus 
was  :  Mat.  iv.  5. 

7.  The  abnegation  of  human  selfhood  and  self-con¬ 
trol  in  both  ancient  and  modern  witchcraft  is  a  crime 
that  cannot  be  justified  upon  any  consideration  whatever. 

8.  The  motive-power  of  both  forms  is  “faith,”  the 
evidence  of  things  unseen. 


138 


IDEOLOGY. 


9.  There  is  a  similarity  in  both  forms  in  the  decep¬ 
tion  and  frauds  imposed  by  the  unscrupulous  upon  the 
ignorant  and  the  defenceless. 

10.  The  same  resulting  delusions,  insanities,  suicides, 
and  murders ! 

11.  The  same  interfere7ice  by  two  spheres  unknown 
to  each  other ;  one  of  which,  for  aught  we  know,  may 
be  entirely  imaginary. 

12.  Similar  concealments  of  crime  in  both  forms. 
The  historical  details  can  never  be  known  ;  and  here  is 
the  proof :  — 

“  The  angularities  of  mediums  shall  never  be  ventilated  in 
these  columns.” — Banner  of  Light,  Feb.  29,  1868. 

My  opinion  is,  if  all  the  failures  in  what  are  called 
“tests  ”  were  published  as  freely  as  they  publish  “mes¬ 
sages  ”  from  those  now  dead,  this  movement  would  col¬ 
lapse  in  a  very  short  time. 

We  never  can  know  by  whom  a  medium  or  minister 
is  inspired,  nor  whether  it  was  the  Jewish  God  or  his 
Devil  that  inspired  (Deut.  xiv.  21)  the  writer  to  repre¬ 
sent  God  as  telling  the  Jews  that  they  should  never  eat 
their  stinking  meat,  but  should  sell  that  to  their 
neighbors  ? 


CHAPTER  XII, 


MEDIUMS  HIP,  A  WIDE-SPREAD  EPIDEMIC. 

Wherein  does  modern  mediumship,  as  an  ideal 
contagion ,  differ  from  any  religious  revival  ?  In  the 
sensational  it  far  exceeds  all  other  epidemics  of  which 
history  has  given  us  any  account.  Its  phenomena  in 
“haunted  houses  ”  had  existed  so  far  back  in  the  misty 
ages  of  the  past  that  we  cannot  tell  when  they  began 
—  the  strange  materialization  of  rabbits ,  cats ,  and  dogs 
without  “mediums”  or  the  faculties  of  speech;  and  it 
is  an  egregious  anachronism  to  date  the  birth  of  the 
“mystic  rap”  in  1848,  for  it  was  always  characteristic 
of  all  “haunted  houses  ”  a  thousand  years  ago.  It  was 
only  mediumship  that  happened  to  be  born  during  that 
year,  March  31  ;  and,  but  for  the  want  of  independent 
knowledge  of  us  and  our  world,  the  rappers  that  pro¬ 
duce  the  physical  phenomena  have  no  external  eyes  or 
ears,  and  no  faculties  for  external  speech.  The  Rev. 
Samuel  Wesley,  father  to  John,  called  them  “dumb 
devils,”  because  they  could  not  speak  when  they 
haunted  him  in  1716.  I  say,  but  for  the  want  of  this 
independent  knowledge  of  us  ;  and  could  it  be  proved 
that  they  ever  lived  in  this  world,  and  were  our  relatives , 
this  movement  without  mediums  long  ago  would  have 
shaken  this  globe  from  pole  to  pole. 


139 


140 


IDEOLOGY. 


JLf 


Nor  was  any  idea  ever  advanced  more  sensational 
or  more  contagious  for  producing  an  epidemic.  While 
the  “mystic  rap”  is  sporadic ,  as  it  always  was,  medium- 
ship  is  a  wide-spread  epidemic.  And  we  should  bear  in 
mind  that  we  are  not  to  take  it  for  granted  that  spirits 
exist,  or  that  they  can  do  this  or  that ;  for  of  this  matter 
we  know  nothing  at  all.  Nor  is  the  testimony  of 
mediums  to  be  allowed  here,  as  to  what  the  cause 
of  the  rap  or  the  trance  may  be,  for  of  all  classes  of 
people  those  who  become  mediums  are  the  most  easily 
deceived  and  hallucinated. 

In  the  nature  of  the  case,  a  medium  does  not  and 
cannot  know  how  the  trance  comes  on.  Does  the 
patient  who  has  a  fit  know  how  it  is  caused  ?  Do  the 
insane  know  ?  The  testimony  of  mediums  in  respect 
to  the  functions  of  the  nervous  system  must  be  received 
with  great  caution.  On  some  features  of  the  general 
subject  it  may  be  relied  upon ;  on  others  it  cannot  be 
relied  upon  at  all,  as  we  shall  see  in  the  sequel. 

While  giving  lectures  in  the  lower  hall  of  Tremont 
Temple  in  the  fall  of  1847,  a  Miss  Mitchell  requested 
to  be  entranced  for  the  purpose  of  having  a  tooth  drawn 
without  pain.  I  told  her  to  attend  my  lectures,  and  I 
would  see  what  I  could  do  for  her.  She  came  to  the 
Temple  on  the  evening  that  a  lecture  was  to  be  given 
before  the  Mercantile  Library  Association,  and,  seeing 
the  people  pass  into  the  upper  hall,  she  supposed  that 
was  the  place  for  my  lecture  ;  and  so  she  went  in,  took 
her  seat  among  the  audience,  and  went  into  the  trance. 
Her  condition  having  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
audience,  I  was  sent  for  from  the  hall  below,  to  which 
I  conducted  her,  and  where  she  had  her  tooth  drawn 
without  pain. 


MEDIUMSHIP,  AN  EPIDEMIC.  I4I 

The  case  of  the  criminal  who  was  condemned  to  die 
is  well  known.  The  physicians  obtained  leave  to  make 
him  believe  he  was  to  be  bled  to  death.  So,  blind¬ 
folded,  his  arm  was  pricked,  and  at  the  same  instant  a 
small  stream  of  water  was  set  to  running  near  by, 
which  sounded  to  him  as  if  it  were  the  blood  from  his 
arm.  In  a  short  space  he  began  to  grow  faint,  and,  as 
the  stream  of  water  became  less  and  less,  he  ceased  to 
breathe  and  was  dead,  while  no  injury  was  done  to  his 
body.  Now,  pray  tell  me  what  killed  that  man  ?  When 
you  shall  have  done  this,  you  will  also  have  told  me 
what  induced  the  trance  in  the  cases  I  have  named. 
And  thus  it  is  in  all  popular  excitements,  all  revivals 
of  religion.  Some  leading  idea  gets  possession  of  the 
public  mind,  and  that  idea  is  always  present,  —  excites, 
subdues,  and  controls  the  minds  of  a  certain  class.  It 
may  be  the  idea  of  Methodism,  Mormonism,  Shakerism, 
or  Spiritualism.  Each  idea  has  its  own  characteristics, 
and  operates  on  certain  temperaments  accordingly. 

The  conclusions  to  be  drawn  from  a  large  number 
of  cases  like  these  are  obvious.  The  public  mind 
becomes  intensely  excited  with  a  leading  idea  respecting 
“spirits,”  real  or  imaginary.  It  is  all  connected  with 
the  invisible  world ,  the  most  startling  of  any  subject 
which  could  possibly  arrest  the  attention  of  the  great 
masses  of  people.  See,  now,  how  easy  it  must  be  for 
persons  of  a  certain  temperament  to  believe  they  are 
operated  on  by  “spirits,”  as  the  man  believed  he  was 
operated  on  by  the  chloroform  when  there  was  no 
chloroform  in  the  inhaler.  And  yet  he  was  entranced 
and  rendered  insensible  to  pain  by  his  own  mind,  by 
his  own  idea,  his  belief  in  a  nonentity. 

This  much,  then,  we  may  consider  settled  and  beyond 


142 


IDEOLOGY. 


\  dispute :  Certain  phenomena  have  occurred,  but  from 
what  cause  or  causes  no  one  knows.  We  may  believe 
what  we  please,  but  we  knozv  nothing  at  all ;  and,  not 
knowing,  these  phenomena  appeal  powerfully  to  our 
organs  of  marvellousness  and  faith.  In  the  exercise  of 
faith  we  may  believe  they  are  produced  by  the  inhabi¬ 
tants  of  the  moon  or  some  other  world  ;  and  hence  it 
is  a  characteristic  of  mediums  that  they  believe ,  —  they 
are  more  credulous  than  others,  and  have  faith  that 
certain  phenomena  have  been  produced  by  Dr.  Frank¬ 
lin,  by  Washington,  by  John  O.  Adams,  or  some  other 
personage  long  since  dead. 

Farther,  bear  in  mind  that  a  radical  and  everlasting 
discrimination  is  to  be  made  between  the  above-named 
phenomena,  that  we  cannot  account  for,  and  the  nervous 
phenomena,  in  the  so-called  media ,  that  we  can  account 
for  by  causes  that  we  know  have  always  existed  in 
human  nature.  All  that  mortals  do  and  say  comes 
from  the  human,  and  is  of  the  mundane.  Mark  here 
what  I  affirm  :  That  the  only  safe  rule  for  us  to  follow 
is  to  hold  all  mortals  responsible  for  all  that  they  say 
and  do,  and  to  consider  them  as  the  real  authors  of 
their  own  conduct.  There  cannot  be  more  than  one 
real  author  of  one  and  the  same  act ;  and  hence  the 
manifest  absurdity  when  we  hear  a  medium  whom  you 
know  speaking  of  himself  or  herself  as  “  somebody 
else,” — Tom,  Dick,  or  Harry;  we  know  not  who. 
Nor  would  any  competent  physician  or  “  commission 
of  lunacy”  hesitate  to  pronounce  any  man  or  woman 
insane  that  persisted  in  the  use  of  such  language. 
“ Mediumized,”  “entranced,”  “converted,”  or  “mes¬ 
merized,”  the  confusion  and  hallucination  are  all  the 
same ;  and  while  mixed  up,  as  this  mania  is,  with 


MEDIUMS  HIP.  AN  EPIDEMIC. 


143 


such  an  avalanche  of  nervous  and  mental  spasms,  they 
are  to  be  classed  with  the  vagaries  of  the  French 
prophets,  the  quakings  of  the  early  followers  of  George 
Fox,  the  shouts  and  groans  of  Methodism,  and  the 
Mormon  visions.  It  is  a  “  new  departure  ”  of  witchcraft . 

The  fundamental  error  of  this  epidemic  is  in  taking 
things  for  granted  which  are  not  susceptible  of  proof. 
Certain  things  cannot  be  demonstrated,  because  there 
is  no  evidence  appropriate  to  the  issue  ;  and,  as  the 
assumption  in  respect  to  certain  dead  personages  can¬ 
not  be  proved,  the  fanatic  takes  the  whole  question  for 
granted  without  proof,  and  thus  excited  with  the  idea 
of  ghosts,  he  leads  off  in  his  imagination  until  lost  in 
the  fogs  of  fanaticism.  It  should  be  repeated  until 
admitted  as  a  psychological  axiom  in  philosophy,  that 
the  mind  and  nervous  system  is  controlled  by  ideas. 
In  the  idea  of  a  ghost  there  is  power,  albeit  there  were 
no  such  existences  as  spirits  ;  and  the  “  inspiration  ” 
by  which  mediums  are  said  to  speak  may  be  accounted 
for  by  the  “influence”  of  this  idea,  which  has  taken 
possession  of  the  medium’s  mind.  A  knowledge  of 
this  fact  would  have  prevented  a  huge  amount  of  fanat¬ 
icism  now  prevalent  among  our  countrymen.  Any 
notion,  any  thought,  hope,  wish,  or  fear, — in  a  word, 
anything,  real  or  imaginary,  which  can  occupy  the 
mind,  associated  with  the  idea  of  the  trance,  may  tend 
to  induce  it,  until  this  tendency  becomes  a  habit ,  and  a 
medium  may  thus  pass  out  and  into  it  at  will,  or, 
“unconscious”  of  any  volition,  each  hour  of  the  day. 

The  strange  “exercises  ”  in  the  so-called  “  Kentucky 
revival,”  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
have  never  been  equalled  by  any  nervous  phenomena 
in  this  mania.  The  “jerks  ”  at  one  time  were  so  preva- 


144 


IDEOLOGY. 


lent  that  the  victims  seized  upon  the  saplings  in  the 
woods,  where  the  camp-meetings  were  held,  and 
Lorenzo  Dow  assured  me  that  he  had  seen  the  young 
trees  completely  denuded  of  their  bark  by  the  jerkers 
attempting  to  hold  on  to  them  to  prevent  their  spasms 
in  jerking  !  And  they  were  affected  with  the  “  rolling,” 
“whirling,”  “barking,”  and  “shouting”  exercises,  —  all 
of  them  believed  to  be  produced  by  a  nondescript  invis¬ 
ibility  !  Also  a  similar  contagion  called  the  “preaching 
epidemic,”  in  Sweden,  in  1842.  All  these  phenomena 
were  self-induced  by  faith  and  fear  and  the  laws  of 
sympathetic  imitation. 

From  time  immemorial  the  habit  of  improvising  has 
prevailed  in  Europe,  where  ignorant  rustics  entertain 
the  people  with  impromptu  poetry  ;  and  nowadays,  when 
modern  mediums  do  this,  they  tell  us  the  rhymes  come 
from  Homer,  Shakespeare,  or  Milton.  The  different 
phases  of  this  epidemic  ignore  the  well-known  laws  of 
psychology  and  nervous  induction.  It  assumes  that 
the  human  mind  is  not  “controlled”  by  its  own  ideas, 
true  or  false  ;  that  the  mind  is  never  influenced  by  the 
force  of  habit. 

Thus  halliLcinated  into  the  belief  of  something 
marvellous,  —  some  wonderful  “  revelation  ”  from  the 
imaginaiy  world,  —  these  nervous  people  become  “  me¬ 
diums,”  and  set  themselves  up  for  teachers  in  philoso¬ 
phy,  science,  medicine,  politics,  and  religion. 

The  advocates  of  these  notions  assure  us  that  mil¬ 
lions  have  been  infected  with  this  maniay  who  now 
yield  their  credulity  to  the  reception  of  the  “  revela¬ 
tions  ”  alleged  to  be  made  to  them  from  day  to  day 
through  these  “mediums.”  They  have  their  meetings 
Sunday ;  they  have  their  churches,  until  the  delusion 


MEDIUMSHIP,  AN  EPIDEMIC. 


145 


has  become  crystallized  and  a  power  among  the  sects 
of  our  country.  And  yet  it  is  a  matter  susceptible 
of  demonstration,  that  among  the  large  class  of  people 
thus  “influenced”  by  an  idea  of  “summer  land,”  not 
one  of  them  will  be  found  capable  of  showing  that 
there  is  any  other  remote  cause  for  these  trances  than 
the  idea  of  “spirits,”  or  the  idea  of  the  state  itself, 
which  has  taken  possession  of  the  medium’s  mind. 

There  is  no  other  cause  so  powerful  in  its  influence 
over  the  mind  as  an  idea.  What  one  believes ,  hopes , 
or  fears  constitutes  the  “influence”  which  induces 
that  change  in  the  nervous  system  denominated  the 
trance.  Now,  it  is  a  sound  maxim  that  we  should 
never  seek  for  remote  and  extraordinary  causes  for  the 
phenomena  we  witness,  where  there  are  causes  near 
at  hand  sufficient  to  account  for  their  production. 
Phenomena  are  constantly  occurring  around  us  every 
day  we  can  account  for  by  chemistry ,  which  were  for¬ 
merly  considered  mysterious,  and  beyond  all  doubt 
attributed  to  the  Devil. 

And  so  in  respect  to  that  change  in  the  mind  and  in 
the  nervous  system  of  a  peculiar  class  of  people  called 
“mediums.”  There  are  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine 
as  near  at  hand,  in  the  mind  and  in  the  nervous  system 
itself,  powerful  enough  and  every-way  sufficient  for  its 
production.  Why,  then,  should  we  ignore  each  one  of 
these  causes,  and  go  outside  of  this  world  for  a  cause  ? 
Why  attribute  the  trance  to  an  inhabitant  of  Jupiter  or 
the  moon,  when  we  find  a  sufficient  cause  in  the  patient 
himself?  The  cause  is  in  his  temperament,  in  his  idio¬ 
syncrasy  y  in  his  own  mind ,  in  his  own  belief,  his  own 
hopes  or  fears,  in  his  idea  which  he  has  himself  formed 
on  this  subject. 


146 


IDEOLOGY. 


No  mortal,  old  or  young,  sceptical  or  credulous,  was 
ever  said  to  be  entranced  by  “  spirit  influence”  who 
had  never  heard  of  any  “spirits.”  Mark  what  I  here 
affirm!  Before  any  one  ever  became  a  “speaking,” 
“writing  ”  “medium,”  he  or  she  had  heard  about  what 
is  called  “spirit  influence.”  They  read  about  it  and 
talk  about  it  until  the  idea  gets  possession  of  their 
minds,  and  thus  “impressed”  with  the  idea,  the  belief, 
the  hope,  or  the  fear  of  “  spirits,”  the  mind  controls  the 
nervous  system,  and  the  trance  follows. 

Now,  look  at  this  wide-spread  mania.  It  has  seized 
the  judge  upon  the  bench,  the  lawyer  at  the  bar,  the 
priest  in  the  pulpit,  and  the  physician  with  the  pill-box. 
It  has  penetrated  the  peaceful  circle  of  domestic 
life,  where  the  sweetest  flowers  bloom,  and  where  its 
hallucinations  have  usurped  parental  authority  and 
shed  their  blight  over  the  endearing  relations  of  life. 
Thus  deluded  into  the  belief  of  some  “  wonderful  reve¬ 
lation,”  some  important  “  communication  ”  from  some 
“Lord  Bacon,”  some  “Dr.  Franklin,”  some  “Napo¬ 
leon,”  or  other  distinguished  personage  long  since  dead, 
the  young  men  and  the  maidens,  and  the  maids  and  men 
no  longer  young,  become  “  entranced  by  spirit  influ¬ 
ence,”  and  set  up  for  teachers  in  matters  of  science. 
In  this  manner  the  trance  becomes  a  mania  by  the  laws 
of  sympathetic  imitation,  and  a  power  which  it  is 
scarcely  possible  for  a  certain  class  of  people  to  resist. 
Once  under  its  “influence,”  once  fairly  “into  it,”  and 
the  brains  are  intoxicated  with  visions  of  Utopia. 
Imbued  with  the  idea  of  mediumship,  your  external 
senses  no  longer  serve  the  normal  purposes  of  life ;  your 
hands,  your  feet,  your  tongue,  your  mind,  and  inmost 
soul  are  no  longer  controlled  by  their  owner,  but  by  an 
idea  of  mediumship. 


MEDIUMS  HIP,  AN  EPIDEMIC. 


147 


You  have  no  longer  the  absolute  command  of  the 
noblest  attributes  of  manhood  or  womanhood.  No 
matter  what  you  have  been,  what  you  have  seen,  nor 
what  you  may  have  known  or  believed ;  no  matter 
how  old,  how  much  experienced,  or  how  learned ;  the 
stoutest  hearts  are  melted  in  this  fire,  fused  and 
moulded  into  this  all-prevalent  idea  of  a  ‘‘royal  road.” 
Children  and  nervous  people  are  drawn  in  by  the  fitness 
of  their  temperaments.  With  large  credulity  and  a 
love  for  the  mysterious,  the  youth  is  drawn  in  with 
such  an  “influence  ”  as  he  has  neither  power  nor  incli¬ 
nation  for  resisting.  When  once  “impressed,”  once 
convinced,  once  “into  it,”  he  is  convulsed  from  head  to 
foot.  He  turns  pale,  rolls  his  eyes  upward,  shakes, 
twitches,  and  sinks  under  this  idea.  Look  at  him. 
The  hands  are  cold  and  hang  powerless  by  his  side. 
The  eyes  are  vacant.  And  now,  again,  he  shakes  from 
head  to  feet,  and  the  cold  sweat  stands  in  drops  upon 
his  face,  while  the  contorted  features  give  signs  of  a 
terrible  struggle  going  on  within.  That  is  a  case  of 
mediumship. 

Look  at  that  young  lady,  well  matured,  educated. 
Her  cheeks  bear  the  crimson  blush  of  beauty.  Her 
external  appearance  indicates  competency,  and  a  heart 
combining  all  that  is  graceful,  beautiful,  and  kind. 
The  influence  of  this  mania  was  slight  upon  her  at  first. 
But  she 

“  Had  lost  a  friend,  a  brother  ; 

Heard  a  father’s  parting  breath 
Gazed  upon  a  lifeless  mother, 

Till  she  seemed  to  wake  from  death,” 

and  the  germ  of  this  mania  held  out  to  her  the  hope , 
the  possibility,  nay,  the  certainty ,  of  obtaining  a  “  com- 


148 


IDEOLOGY. 


munication  ”  from  one  she  most  loved,  although  that 
loved  one  was  dead  and  buried.  Of  course  she  is,  she 
must  be,  attracted  by  this  idea.  She  could  not  be 
human  if  she  were  not.  And  thus  impressed  with  the 
idea,  and  impelled  by  a  strong  desire  to  have  that  hope 
gratified,  she  dwells  upon  it  until  her  heart  is  bewitched 
with  the  thought.  So  she  goes  “into  it,”  gradually  at 
first,  of  course,  but  surely.  Her  nerves  are  agitated; 
but  the  more  she  thinks  of  it,  the  stronger  does  the 
impression  become.  And  now  what  can  she  do  ?  Can 
she  retrace  her  steps  ?  How  ?  Which  way  ?  All  is 
invisible,  uncertain.  It  is  a  revelation  from  the  grave, 
a  “communication  ”  from  the  unknown  world  she  is  in 
search  for.  She  yields  up  her  mind,  her  nervous  sys¬ 
tem,  her  soul,  and  her  body,  to  this  all-pervading  idea. 
She  closes  her  eyes  upon  external  objects  that  she 
may  have  a  more  vivid  conception  of  the  invisible. 
Her  judgment  no  longer  serves  her.  Her  credulity  is 
large,  and,  impelled  by  an  irresistible  love  of  the  hidden 
and  obscure  which  is  in  the  idea  that  has  so  completely 
fascinated  her,  she  is  “  entranced  under  spirit  influ¬ 
ence.”  Thus,  finding  herself  “in  it,”  like  others  of  her 
neighbors  and  friends,  she  makes  no  effort  to  return 
whence  she  came. 

The  wife  is  influenced  out  of  love  for  her  husband, 
and  the  husband  from  conjugal  love  for  his  spouse,  and 
thus  the  sympathy  extends  from  families  to  neighbor¬ 
hoods,  and  larger  circles  of  community.  One  neighbor 
influences  another,  and  when  they  stand  high  as  judges, 
clergymen,  and  all  professional  men  do,  more  or  less, 
the  influence  becomes  powerful  beyond  what  common 
people  have  the  capacity  for  resisting.  In  this  manner 
the  mania  reaches  not  only  one  or  two  sections,  but  it 


MEDIUMSHIP,  AN  EPIDEMIC. 


149 


is  extended  over  the  entire  country,  and  even  beyond 
the  sea.  We  have  numerous  accounts  of  the  “mission” 
mediums  have  made ;  one  in  England  has  made  a 
princely  fortune,  and  I  could  give  the  names  of  a  num¬ 
ber  in  America  who  have  become  suddenly  wealthy  by 
this  epidemic, — some  as  writers,  and  some  as  “  doctors.” 
This  epidemic  has  its  press  and  its  literatures.  Huge 
octavos  are  published,  and  any  number  of  i2mos,  and 
smaller  books,  containing  “messages”  from  noted  per¬ 
sonages  long  since  dead,  addressed  to  the  inhabitants 
of  the  earth. 

Now,  what  are  the  legitimate  conclusions  to  be 
deduced  from  the  ground  over  which  this  investigation 
has  conducted  us?  Is  there  any  “royal  road”  to 
heaven,  or  to  general  knowledge?  We  have  seen  what 
a  state  of  ecstasy,  spontaneous  or  artificial,  or  induced 
trance,  amounts  to  when  adopted  as  a  habit  and  theo¬ 
ries  of  the  unknown  based  upon  it. 

We  are  assured  that  the  numbers  in  this  country 
who  rely  upon  this  state  of  hallucination  as  a  superior 
or  “royal  road”  for  obtaining  a  knowledge  of  what 
man’s  condition  will  be  after  death  reach  up  among 
the  millions.  The  mediums  are  daily  consulted  as  “ora¬ 
cles  ;  ”  and  this  trance,  in  which  the  senses  become  sus¬ 
pended  more  or  less,  is  supposed  to  be  the  highest  and 
best  state  the  mind  can  be  in  for  acquiring  knowledge, 
not  of  this  world  alone,  but  of  another  state  of  exist¬ 
ence,  of  which  nothing  reliable  can  be  known.  But,  I 
ask,  how  can  that  be  considered  a  “  superior  state  ” 
in  which  some  of  our  mental  and  physical  faculties  are 
wholly  suspended  ?  If  the  trance  be  a  superior  state, 
then  it  must  be  equally  true  that  Jits ,  catalepsy ,  dream¬ 
ing ,  insanity ,  or  hydrophobia  is  a  “  superior  state”  of 
the  human  mind  for  the  acquisition  of  knowledge. 


IDEOLOGY. 


150 

It  is  also  an  objection  against  these  assumptions  as 
to  the  remote  and  extraordinary  causes  assigned  for 
the  mediumship,  that  they  so  plainly  contradict  the 
maxims  of  Philosophy  and  Science.  Nay,  common 
sense  tells  us  that  we  should  always  and  everywhere 
attribute  physical  phenomena  to  physical  laws ;  men¬ 
tal  phenomena,  to  mental  laws  ;  and  nervous  phenomena, 
to  laws  of  the  nervous  system,  —  what  a  man  does  to 
the  man  himself.  And  so  when  we  see  one  talking 
with  the  eyes  shut,  the  first  presumption  should  be  that 
it  is  the  man’s  or  woman’s  own  brains  that  are  at  work ; 
that  it  is  the  human  personage  we  see  and  hear  who  is 
the  real  person  acting,  and  the  only  personage  who  is 
or  can  be  considered  as  the  real  author  of  what  is  said 
and  done  in  the  case.  To  ignore  this  rule  for  inter¬ 
preting  the  actions  of  human  beings  is  to  open  the 
door  for  anarchy,  confusion,  and  untold  mischief ;  and 
thus  it  is  that  many  of  the  evils  which  have  followed 
in  the  wake  of  the  mediumistic  epidemic  are  to  be 
accounted  for. 

But  I  deny  that  any  man  or  any  woman  has  any  moral 
right  thus  to  surrender  the  nervous  system  to  the  con¬ 
trol  of  an  unknowable  personage.  Suppose  the  pretence 
set  up  be  true,  that  the  woman  yields  her  soul  and 
body  to  an  “influence”  which  renders  her  unconscious 
of  her  words  and  actions  while  in  that  state.  Is  this 
right  ?  Is  it  consistent  ?  Has  any  one  any  moral 
right  to  thus  yield  up  his  individual  sovereignty,  hood¬ 
winked  by  an  idea  of  a  ghost,  led  by  the  nose,  and 
made  to  sing,  to  pray,  to  preach,  to  dance,  to  laugh, 
to  weep,  to  groan,  to  jerk,  and  throw  his  limbs  about 
in  the  air ;  or  to  spout  in  the  name  of  some  imaginary 
personage  from  the  moon  ?  It  is  a  species  of  delirium 


MEDIUMSHIP,  AN  EPIDEMIC.  T  5  I 

or  insanity,  and  is  so  considered  by  all  persons  who 
are  admitted  to  be  the  most  competent  for  judging. 
And  yet  mediums  describe  the  trance  as  a  “superior 
state,”  by  which  they  mean  that  it  is  the  most  favor¬ 
able  condition  for  acquiring  knowledge !  To  this  I 
reply :  — 

That  no  man  can  lift  himself  by  his  own  shoe-strings. 
No  lid  can  cover  itself.  Mediums  are  not  reliable 
authority  on  this  subject.  The  tippler  with  a  glass  of 
brandy  in  his  stomach  affirms  that  that  is  the  highest, 
the  “superior  state,”  for  him.  The  maniac  in  Bedlam 
says  the  same.  The  sectarian  fanatics  all  tell  the  same 
story  of  themselves.  They  are  in  a  “superior  state.” 
And  when,  “controlled”  by  this  epidemic,  they  spin 
long  yarns  of  the  “  invisibles  ”  by  whom  they  think  they 
are  spell-bound,  it  only  shows  that  they  do  not  and 
cannot  know  by  what  processes  they  have  been  involved 
in  this  state.  There  may  be  danger  even  when 
entranced  by  a  mortal,  though  not  necessarily  so. 
When  you  submit  your  nervous  system  and  your  mind 
to  the  control  of  another,  you  are  bound  to  inform 
yourself,  beforehand ,  who  it  is,  and  to  know  in  how  far 
he  is  reliable  in  respect  to  his  knowledge  and  qualifica¬ 
tions  for  that  peculiar  work. 

But  when  the  habit  of  sinking  into  the  trance  becomes 
an  epidemic,  the  case  is  different  altogether.  In  the 
latter  case,  you  do  not  know,  you  cannot  know,  what 
kind  of  influences  you  may  be  subjected  to.  And  yet 
we  are  assured  that  thousands  of  media  are  daily  sink¬ 
ing  into  this  state,  many  of  whom  become  utterly 
“unconscious,”  and  some  of  them  do  and  say  things  of 
which  they  ought  to  feel  ashamed,  and,  if  they  do  not, 
so  much  the  worse  for  them.  My  opinion  is,  that  a 


152 


IDEOLOGY. 


large  class  have  the  reputation  of  trance  media,  when 
in  reality  they  were  never  entranced  at  all,  or  in  any 
abnormal  state. 

A  lady  medium,  while  “  speaking  under  spirit  influ¬ 
ence  ”  in  Cincinnati,  became  raving  mad ,  and  she  had 
to  be  confined  immediately  as  the  consequence.  When 
a  lady,  “under  spirit  influence,”  while  addressing  a 
public  audience,  becomes  suddenly  raving  mad,  one 
might  suppose  that  such  an  event  would  have  a  ten¬ 
dency  to  show  the  danger  of  becoming  mediums.  But 
then  when  people  become  “bewitched  ”  with  this  all- 
powerful  notion  of  “spirits,”  they  are  more  likely  to 
become  insane,  and  less  likely  to  hear  to  reason, 
even  when  it  raps  them  on  the  head. 

Hence  the  terrible  mischief  that  always  follows  in 
the  wake  of  all  mental  epidemics,  and  of  mediumship 
especially,  as  this  is  more  sensational  and  far  more 
widespread  than  any  religious  revival  or  any  epidemic 
purely  ideal  ever  known.  All  the  so-called  “tests” 
from  which  it  is  supposed  that  nondescript  invisibilities 
from  an  unknown  world  are  our  relatives,  are  a  mani¬ 
fest  fraud.  Yet  see  how  the  trap  is  set  for  our  faith  : — 

For  death,  that  does  our  bands  of  life  unloose 
Cannot  the  love  of  our  best  friends  destroy ; 

And  this  love  all  who  are  mediums  choose, 

As  by  this  they  find  their  chief  employ. 

A  hidden  deception,  as  broad  as  our  earth  is  wide, 
and  as  complicated  as  perdition  itself. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


PSYCHOMETRY  AND  DEADHEADS. 

Dr.  Joseph  Rhodes  Buchanan  claims  the  discovery 
of  what  he  calls  psychometry ;  and,  as  he  has  since 
become  active  in  making  his  notions  co-operate  in  the 
mediumistic  movement,  both  in  the  college  with  which 
he  may  be  connected  and  also  in  the  endorsement 
of  psychometry  of  mediumship,  I  must  give  him,  in 
connection  with  this  deadhead  business,  a  passing 
notice.  I  have  seen  it  reported  of  him  that  he  has 
stated  that  he  had  £>een  the  pioneer  in  the  intro¬ 
duction  of  Spiritualism  in  this  country,  inasmuch  as  so 
long  ago  as  1843  he  performed  a  psychometric  experi¬ 
ment  upon  a  young  lady  in  Kentucky,  in  which  he 
“caused  her  to  see  the  spirit  of  her' mother,  who  had 
long  been  dead.”  I  believe  he  claims  to  be  a  Christian 
as  well  as  an  advocate  of  moderm  mediumship,  which 
he  has  announced  that  he  will  explain  and  exemplify 
with  his  psychometry  in  the  college  with  which  he  has 
been  recently  associated. 

When  Dr.  B.  first  visited  New  York  I  resided  in 
that  city ;  and  although  I  attended  his  lectures  on  his 
psychometry,  which  in  his  book  he  declared  had  “left 
little  or  nothing  else  to  be  discovered  in  anthropology,” 
I  never  did  invest  in  it  or  consider  it  of  much  impor¬ 
tance.  And  it  is  due  to  my  subject  that  I  should  state 


i53 


154 


IDEOLOGY. 


that  Mr.  Inman,  the  patient  whom  Dr.  B.  brought  with 
him  from  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  to  New  York,  declared, 
after  Dr.  B.  left,  that  he  had  purposely  deceived  Dr.  B., 
as  did  Miss  Fishbough,  also,  from  Boston,  upon  whom 
Dr.  B.’s  psychometrical  experiments  were  performed. 
But,  although  he  seems  to  have  been  a  convert  to 
modern  mediumship,  his  psychometry  has  been  repudi¬ 
ated  by  Spiritualists,  because  it  had  endorsed  some 
bogus  pictures,  photographs,  or  busts  that  had  been 
taken,  and  Dr.  Buchanan  proved  them  gemline  by  his 
psychometry.  And  now  to  the  facts  :  — 

“  Certain  photographs  of  materialized  spirits  at  Terre 
Haute,  Ind.,  have  been  psychometrically  described  by  many 
psychometers  with  entire  unanimity  in  their  expression,  thus 
confirming  the  truth  of  spirit  materialization. ” —  Jos.  R. 
Buchanan,  R.  P.  Journal,  Jan.  20,  1881. 

When  this  same  Dr.  Buchanan,  some  forty  years  ago, 
lectured  in  New  York  on  his  theory  of  “psychometry,” 
it  was  shown  to  be  a  fallacy,  and  Mr.  Inman  and 
Miss  F.,  the  two  patients  on  whom  he  performed  his 
“psychometrical  experiments,”  afterwards  declared 
that  they  feigned  all  their  “manifestations;”  thus 
showing  how  Dr.  B.  was  deceived  from  first  to  last  in 
these  “experiments,”  which  were  endorsed  by  one  or 
more  members  of  the  New  York  Medical  Society. 
Since  that  time  no  recognition  of  this  “theory”  has 
ever  been  admitted  by  the  scientific  world.  But  a  few 
years  since  it  was  by  a  well-known  Spiritualist  endorsed 
in  his  lectures  on  geology.  Whereupon  Dr.  B.  made 
a  “new  departure”  in  behalf  of  his  theory,  and  en¬ 
dorsed  Spiritualism,  when  he  was  of  course  at  once 
recognized  as  an  acquisition  among  the  oracles  of 
modern  mysticism.  Those  familiar  with  the  dominant 


PSYCHOMETRY  AND  DEADHEADS. 


155 


traits  in  Dr.  Buchanan’s  mental  calibre  will  not  be 
surprised  either  at  the  stretch  of  his  credulity  in 
gulping  so  readily  all  the  monstrous  absurdities  here 
described,  nor,  indeed,  that  these  absurdities  are  now 
repudiated  by  his  new  allies,  so  as  to  bring  him  to  grief 
in  his  advanced  age. 

Spiritualists  sorry  for  Dr.  Buchanan.  —  Thus  the 
spirit  paper  in  Philadelphia,  which  repudiates  the  Dr.’s 
“spirit  photographs,”  because  it  thinks  they  were 
made  by  “Jesuitical  spirits  :  ”  — 

«* 

“  We  are  exceedingly  sorry  to  be  compelled  to  put  a 
damper  upon  him,  but  it  is  better  to  do  this  than  to  allow 
the  enemy  to  carry  Dr.  Buchanan  into  hopeless  captivity. 
We  close  with  the  conclusion  that  ‘  psychometry  ’  has  re¬ 
ceived  a  fearful  stab  from  its  founder,  Dr.  Buchanan.”  — 
Mind  and  Matter ,  Feb.  19,  1881. 

Dr.  Bucha?ian  Bamboozled.  —  “I  must,  in  justice  to  the 
truth,  affirm  that  the  psychometric  interpretations  of  the 
photographic  pictures  of  Mary  the  mother  of  Jesus,  St. 
Peter,  and  others,  have  been  most  perfect  illustrations  of  the 
truth  and  value  of  psychometry ;  and  that  I  personally  know 
that  each  of  those  pictures  contain  a  great  psychometric 
potency,  and  is  of  great  value  for  the  psychometric  culture 
of  the  soul,  as  many  can  testify  from  experience.  Their 
value  arises  from  the  fact  that  they  are  genuine  spirit-pic¬ 
tures,  and  do  bring  to  us  by  the  psychometric  law,  which 
will  be  illustrated  in  my  work  on  psychometry  (now  preparing), 
the  spiritual  potency  of  those  pure  and  exalted  beings ! 
The  photograph  of  Mary  is  known  by  my  psychometrics  to 
be  a  faithful  picture  of  the  materialized  spirit  whom  they 
saw  and  touched,  and  they  recognized  the  spirit  form  of 
this  noble  woman,  who  is  loved  and  admired  by  all  who  have 
any  spiritual  perception  of  her  character,  and  who  has  since 
positively  stated  the  correctness  of  this  picture.” —  J.  B. 
Buchana?i,  B.  B.  Journal,  Jan.  20,  1881. 

And  now,  if  the  reader  can  form  a  correct  idea  as 
to  the  dimensions  of  that  credulous  gullet  that  swallows 


156 


IDEOLOGY. 


stuff  like  the  above,  he  can  anticipate  what  the  merits 
of  that  “new  work”  of  Dr.  Buchanan’s  will  be,  for 
which  he  is  now  so  evidently  fishing  for  patronage 
among  the  wonder-mongers. 

A  huge  rent  in  the  Spirit  Balloon.  —  The  same  paper 
that  says  “  psychometry  has  been  fearfully  stabbed  by 
its  founder  ”  admits  a  rent  has  been  made  in  the  spirit¬ 
ual  balloon  equally  fatal !  Hence,  the  partisans  of 
the  ism  are  now  divided  into  two  factions  that,  like  the 
Irish  cats,  must  eat  each  other  up!  Each  charges 
the  other  with  being  under  the  “  control  ”  of  Jesuitical  or 
“lying  spirits,”  and  what  they  call  “obsession.”  This 
is  no  doubt  true  of  both  ;  for,  admitting  that  in  any 
case  there  is  any  “spirit”  outside  of  any  medium,  it 
cannot  be  proved  as  to  who  the  spirit  is,  nor  that  there 
is  ever  more  than  one  with  any  medium  !  A  house 
divided  thus  against  itself  cannot  stand. 

Psychometric  Fallacies.  —  That  psychometry  should 
endorse  the  monstrous  absurdities  of  modern  mysticism 
is  enough,  surely,  to  damn  it  forever  from  all  recogni¬ 
tion  by  scientific  and  thoughtful  minds  ;  and  were  this 
the  place,  any  amount  of  facts,  pathological  and 
psychological,  could  be  given  to  prove  that  this  theory 
depends  upon  assumptions,  conjecture,  false  ideas,  and 
credulity.  Its  only  foothold  is  ignorance,  and  even  if 
now  and  then  a  case  be  found  where  the  phenomena 
seem  to  support  it,  and  we  were  to  admit  its  truth,  it 
amounts  to  nothing  in  its  benefits  to  humanity.  There¬ 
fore,  in  such  cases,  to  drill  the  minds  of  ignorant  people 
with  this  false  idea,  and  then  hand  them  over  to  the 
“control”  of  modern  mysticism,  is  an  accumulation 
of  evils  that  brings  upon  “psychometry”  the  frown  of 
the  scientific  world. 


PSYCHOMETRY  AND  DEADHEADS. 


157 


All  minds  are  controlled  by  ideas,  true  or  false  ;  and 
the  nervous  system  is  an  instrument  of  marvellous 
susceptibility,  that  may  be  put  into  ten  thousand  fan¬ 
tastic  shapes,  —  square,  three-cornered,  or  round,  —  and 
having  as  many  “  heads,  hoofs,  and  horns-”  as  the 
monsters  we  read  of  in  the  Bible  !  Thus  ideas  are 
generated  in  support  of  theories,  — ■  geological,  medical, 
theological,  mesmeric,  and  mediumistic,  —  all  of  them 
ideal,  and  of  no  possible  benefit  to  the  human  race ; 
and  it  is  a  black  mark  against  “  psychometry  ”  that  its 
founder  to  this  day  has  not  learned  better  than  to  talk 
of  publishing  a  “new  book”  on  what  he  calls  the 
“ psychometrical  culture  of  the  human  soul.”  The 
culture  of  the  human  mind  dispenses  with  psychometry, 
and  does  not  invest  in  photography  of  St.  Peter  and 
“the  Virgin  Mary,”  an  estimate  of  mystical  phenomena 
that  Joseph  R.  Buchanan  ought  to  have  formed  many 
years  ago. 

Psychometry  of  Dr.  Buchanan.  —  Surely  “  the  founder 
of  psychometry  ”  cannot  object  to  his  own  long-cher¬ 
ished  standard  as  to  human  character ;  and  especially 
when  giving  him  his  own  portrait,  drawn  by  one  of  the 
very  best  “psychometers”  Dr.  Buchanan  ever  had.  I 
say  this,  because  I  heard  Dr.  B.  himself  declare  in  one  of 
his  lectures  in  Boston,  in  1843,  that  Mrs.  Oliver  John¬ 
son  was  the  most  reliable  “psychometer”  he  ever 
knew  for  giving  a  truthful  account  of  character  by 
holding  the  handwriting  in  her  hands.  Now,  in  my 
work  on  “The  Trance,”  page  29,  will  be  found  quite  a 
long  letter  from  Joseph  R.  Buchanan,  the  manuscript 
copy  of  which  is  now  before  me.  At  the  time  that  letter 
was  written,  Dr.  B.  and  myself  were  both  engaged 
in  giving  lectures  in  Boston,  —  he  on  “Psychometry,” 


153 


IDEOLOGY. 


and  I  on  Pathetism,  or  the  law  of  self-induction  ;  and, 
while  there  was  no  hall  in  Boston  large  enough  to  hold 
my  audiences,  Dr.  Buchanan’s  lectures  were  confined 
to  parlors. 

For  my  closing  lecture  in  the  Masonic  Temple, 
Tremont  Street,  Nov.  24,  1843,  Dr.  Buchanan  wrote 
this  letter,  and,  as  will  be  seen,  it  was  not  addressed 
to  me,  but  to  my  audience,  and  put  into  the  hands  of 
Mr.  L.  N.  Fowler,  the  phrenologist,  who  brought  it 
into  my  lecture,  and  informed  me  that  “  Dr.  Buchanan 
had  requested  him  to  read  that  letter  to  my  audience.” 
I  took  the  insult  from  the  hands  of  Mr.  Fowler,  and 
kept  it  for  future  use  ;  and,  when  in  1868  I  published 
this  letter  in  my  work  on  “The  Trance,”  I  did  not  add 
this  psychometric  account  by  Mrs.  J.,  because  she  had 
been  so  much  overcome  with  regret  on  finding  that  she 
had  given  such  an  account  of  her  friend,  that  she 
extorted  from  me  a  promise  that  I  would  not  publish 
during  her  life  the  portrait  that  she  had  drawn. 

April  19,  1844,  I  happened  to  find  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Johnson  in  New  York,  and  I  embraced  the  first  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  ascertaining  what  Dr.  Buchanan’s  best 
“psychometer  ”  would  say  of  him  ;  and  here  I  give  it  as 
it  fell  from  the  lips  of  that  “psychometer,”  written 
down  by  her  husband,  as  follows  :  — 

“  The  writer  of  this  letter  is  a  person  of  strong  social 
feeling.  This  letter  was  written  in  an  unquiet  frame  of 
mind,  exceedingly  liable  to  be  warped  by  prejudice ;  lacks 
clearness  of  moral  vision ;  would  confound  right  and  wrong ; 
a  person  of  good  intellect ;  would  not  do  justice  in  a  case 
where  he  was  personally  interested ;  selfish.  I  would  be 
sorry  to  be  placed  in  the  power  of  such  a  person  ;  I  could 
not  trust  him.  This  letter  was  written  not  from  a  straight¬ 
forward,  honest  purpose  or  motive.” 


PSYCHOMETRY  AND  DEADHEADS. 


159 


As  I  have  said,  Dr.  Buchanan’s  letter  was  not 
addressed  to  me,  but  “to  the  gentlemen  who  have 
attended  Mr.  Sunderland’s  experiments  and  lectures,” 
and  it  was  such  an  evident  attempt  to  fill  his  own  gas¬ 
bag  at  my  cost  that  I  never  considered  it  worthy  of 
criticism.  But  I  can  “endorse  psychometry  ”  far 
enough  to  certify  that  the  above  is  an  accurate  estimate 
of  his  character,  and  no  mistake. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


THE  CONTAGIOUS  DANCE  OF  DEATH. 

“  And  who  can  hear  this  tale  without  a  tear?  ” —  Virgil. 

This  horrid  dance  was  advertised  in  Boston  only  a 
few  years  ago  by  two  English  mediums,  Mr.  J.  H. 
Powell  and  wife,  and  the  dance  was  performed  by  Mrs. 
Powell  from  night  to  night  for  the  amusement  of  a 
gaping  multitude  of  people.  They  visited  me  in  1871, 
and  appeared  to  be  good  and  well-meaning  persons  ; 
but  I  could  but  grieve  to  notice  what  an  woful  mistake 
they  had  made  in  their  business  calling ;  and  the  same 
business  may  be  still  carried  on  in  other  places.  Mrs. 
P.  was  dressed  in  Indian  style,  and  armed  with  a 
“tommyhawk”  and  “scalping-knife;”  and  entranced 
(as  she  said)  upon  the  public  platform,  she  was  “  con¬ 
trolled  by  a  dead  Indian  ”  !  When  performing  for  the 
public  amusement,  she  kicked  and  thrashed  about  the 
platform  as  she  imagined  a  living  Indian  would  do. 
She  gave  the  Indian  “war-whoop  ”  and  did  other  things 
to  please  the  audience  who  came  to  witness  in  her  the 
“  dance  of  death  ”  ! 

V 

Thus,  when  mediums  to  grandeur  soar, 

They  light  the  torch  that  shows  their  shame  the  more. 

Beyond  a  certain  amount  of  strain  or  credulity,  human 
reason  is  dethroned,  when  murders  and  suicides  fol- 

160 


THE  CONTAGIOUS  DANCE  OF  DEATH.  l6l 

low,  such  as  I  must  now  describe.  Fanaticism  knows 
no  laws,  high  or  low  ;  and  when  once  under  its  sway, 
who  can  tell  what  an  insane  man  will  do  ?  Against 
these  very  excesses  I  cautioned  all  engaged  in  this 
movement  in  the  paper  I  issued  in  1850;  and  this 
was  before  Spiritualism  had  fairly  adopted  the  term 
that  now  floats  upon  its  banners.  I  plainly  foresaw 
that,  as  the  entrancement  of  the  mediums  became 
general,  it  would  open  the  flood-gates  of  a  wide-spread 
delusion.  The  dead  are  not  here  to  answer  for  them¬ 
selves,  nor  will  the  day  ever  dawn  upon  this  earth 
when  humanity  and  science  will  consent  to  have  modern 
mediumship  as  an  oracle  to  speak  for  those  whose 
lips  have  been  closed  forever  by  the  seal  of  death. 

As  I  have  borrowed  the  term  of  “deadhead,”  allow 
me  to  explain  :  — 

1.  I  have  witnessed  “haunted-house”  phenomena 
since  1845,  and  I  read  accounts  of  these  “manifesta¬ 
tions”  of  unseen  intelligences  that  did  not  seem  to 
sustain  any  relation  to  our  planet,  or  to  know,  indeed, 
what  strange  things,  that  frightened  all  who  either  wit¬ 
nessed  or  heard  of  them,  they  were  doing  in  certain  local¬ 
ities.  Now,  as  I  have  elsewhere  stated,  these  “  haunted 
house  ”  phenomena  culminated  in  the  incidental  dis¬ 
covery  of  modern  mediumship ;  and  the  history  of  this 
movement  will  show  that  its  fancies,  follies,  and  fal¬ 
lacies  are  proofs  that  these  intelligences  neither  belong 
to  our  world,  nor  have  they  a  particle  of  independent 
knowledge  either  of  our  planet  or  of  us  and  our  affairs. 
This  has  been  in  “favorable  conditions”  always  ad¬ 
mitted  to  me  when  I  have  questioned  them  ;  and  I 
have  asked  them  in  a  medium’s  presence  the  reasons 
for  their  assuming  our  names  and  pretending  to  be 


IDEOLOGY. 


162 

our  relativcSy  and  the  answer  has  been  to  this  effect, 
namely,  “We  please  our  medium,  and  we  gratify  all 
the  interested  parties  in  the  circle  ”  ! 

2.  We  know  nothing  whatever  as  to  what  sphere 
these  intelligences  belong ;  nothing  as  to  how  or  where 
they  became  invisibles  ;  nothing  as  to  their  sexhood  or 
their  occupation,  nor  what  they  eat  nor  how  employed. 
But  we  do  know  that  all  our  knowledge  and  our  rela¬ 
tion  with  this  earth  is  wiped  out  by  death,  and,  if 
another  existence  remains  for  us  after  death,  it  must, 
in  all  its  relations,  be  newy  as  our  existence  is  when 
born  into  this  life. 

3.  The  “house  ”  in  Hydesville,  N.  Y.,  where  human 
mediumship  began  in  1848,  had  been  “haunted’'  for 
more  than  a  year,  and  by  invisible  intelligences  that 
had  no  idea  that  they  might  answer  to  the  name  of 
“spirits,”  until  Mrs.  Fox  suggested  this  term  to  them, 
when  they  replied,  “Yes,”  “yes,”  “yes,”  to  falsehood , 
as  was  subsequently  ascertained.  Why,  then,  should  I 
call  them  “angels”  or  “spirits,” — names  that  were 
never  claimed  by  the  “haunted-house  phenomena” 
that  have  occurred  in  ages  past  ?  Henc6  I  say  “dead¬ 
heads.”  My  friends  are  dead,  and  not  one  of  them 
ever  came  back  to  me,  nor  does  any  one  belong  to  me, 
or  to  this  world,  when  dead. 

4.  All  we  can  know  of  this  new  movement  is  the 
“ medium ”  and  “raps”  upon  the  table-leg,  while  there 
are  a  dozen  factors  utterly  unknown,  and  science  can¬ 
not  build  theories  upon  forms  of  force  wholly  unknown. 
Yet  mediums  tell  of  a  few  scientific  men  who  have 
“taken  photographs”  of  their  shadowy  forms.  But 
they  have  named  no  truly  scientific  man  that  has 
adopted  any  theory  of  the  “summer-land.” 


THE  CONTAGIOUS  DANCE  OF  DEATH.  163 

5.  I  have  referred  to  the  “favorable  conditions” 

* 

when  these  invisibles  have  told  me  that  they  have  no 
external  senses,  nor  external  eyes,  nor  ears,  as  we  have, 
for  a  knowledge  of  this  world,  and  this  is  the  reason 
for  their  utter  dependence  on  certain  localities  and  cer¬ 
tain  peculiar  temperaments  as  mediums.  But  for  these 
human  conditions ,  they  could  do  nothing*  except  such 
phenomena  as  have  been  known  in  “haunted  houses” 
in  ages  past.  They  have  also  told  me  how  gratifying 
it  was  to  them  to  find  one  with  a  temperament  that 
they  could  “control;”  moreover,  that  no  “test  me¬ 
dium  ”  was  or  could  be  “controlled  ”  by  more  than  one 
invisible ;  thus  corresponding  to  what  we  know  of 
psychology,  that  when  a  patient  is  “entranced”  by 
two  or  more  he  becomes  good  for  nothing.  They  are 
always  thus  spoiled. 

6.  It  has  seemed  to  me  as  bordering  upon  the  ludi¬ 
crous  when  Mrs.  Fox  told  me  that  she  asked  the  “rap  ” 
made  at  her  feet,  and  which  frightened  them  so,  “if  it 
was  made  by  a  departed  spirit.”  The  rapper  had  not 
“departed”  very  far!  And  so,  when  we  hear  one 
speaking  of  the  “spirit’s  return ,”  when  there  is  no 
proof  that  the  “spirit”  ever  inhabited  a  human  body 
on  this  planet,  as  you  and  I  do  ;  they  can  neither 
show  from  what  world  they  came,  nor  that  they  ever 
lived  here. 

7.  And  now  this  problem  in  regard  to  ancient  and 
modem  mediumship  presents  itself  for  a  solution  :  As 
to  how  much  our  humanity  is  to  be  benefited  by 
“visions  and  revelations”  from  a  Bible  God,  who  has 
to  be  informed  beforehand  by  “prayer  and  supplica¬ 
tion”  as  to  our  wants;  and  in  what  respects  are  any 
of  us  to  be  benefited  by  “tests,”  “messages,”  and 


164 


IDEOLOGY. 


“communications”  from  angels  that  have  no  indepen¬ 
dent  knowledge  of  us,  and  who  sustain  no  relation  to  our 
globe,  nor  to  us,  except  what  they  assume  to  please  a 
medium  and  to  gratify  the  “circle”  and  the  parties 
interested,  as  when  they  materialize  in  the  forms  of 
rabbits,  cats,  and  human  beings,  which  evinces  only  a 
knowledge  they  acquire,  through  the  medium’s  brain, 
of  our  thoughts. 

Now,  what  an  idea  of  “deadheads:”  that  they  suc¬ 
ceed  in  ideal  contagion  and  a  real  epidemic  !  They 
have  visited  this  world,  to  which  they  do  not  belong, 
and,  as  far  as  we  know,  never  did  belong  to  it,  and  have 
commenced  a  rivalry  in  drugs  and  drugging.  'Is  not 
this  somewhat  an  odd  idea?  The  “rap,”  the  zigzag 
method  upon  the  table-leg,  seems  an  enigmatical  way 
of  talking ;  and  this  epidemic,  got  up  by  rattling  the 
pill-box,  seems  more  queer  still ! 

What  must  the  grief  of  a  number  of  families  and 
neighborhood  be  when  a  death  crime  is  committed, 
like  the  very  first  one  that  shocked  humanity,  when  a 
young  husband,  in  the  ancient  town  of  Quincy,  Mass., 
puts  a  ball  through  the  heart  of  his  young  wife,  only 
fifteen!  They  were  Spiritualists,  and  it  was  in  1850, 
even  before  the  present  wide  and  wildest  mental  epi¬ 
demic  had  well  begun  to  be  manifest,  as  it  was  only 
two  years  after  the  discovery  of  mediumship  in  con¬ 
nection  with  the  “haunted-house”  phenomena.  The 
tomb  of  this  unhappy  couple  is  in  the  cemetery  of 
Ouincy,  and  sc  near  me  that  I  can  almost  see  it  from 
Rustic  Lodge,  where  I  reside. 

Nor  can  the  sorrow  be  less  in  reflecting  on  this 
epidemic  when  we  know  that  its  gigantic  dimensions 
are  now  so  ramified  and  extended  that  a  thousand  mur- 


THE  CONTAGIOUS  DANCE  OF  DEATH. 


165 


ders  and  suicides  might  be  committed  every  year,  and 
the  mass  would  not  think  of  it  at  all.  The  father  of 
one  of  this  youthful  pair,  some  months  after  the  murder 
and  suicide  were  committed,  came  from  Ohio,  and, 
finding  nothing  in  their  trunk  but  Andrew  J.  Davis’s 
writings,  erected  a  tombstone  with  the  following 
inscription  :  — 

“  MURDER  AND  SUICIDE. 

“  Erected  to  the  memory  of  John  R.  Grieve.  Died  Novr.  12, 
1850,  JE.  22  years.  And  to  Hannah  Banks,  his  wife.  Died 
Novr.  12,  1850,  JE.  15  years.  Both  of  Zanesville,  Ohio. 
Deluded  by  the  writings  of  Andrew  J.  Davis.” 

The  only  relieving  consideration  which  science  and 
the  order  of  Nature  suggest  in  such  calamities  is,  that, 
whatever  may  be  that  new  condition  of  things  to  which 
we  are  pushed  or  borne  by  death,  there  cannot  be  any 
surprise  or  any  disappointment ,  any  more  than  when  we 
began  human  life  in  this  world.  Nor  could  we  imagine 
an  idea  of  the  future  more  absurd  than  that  we  carry 
through  death  all  the  social  names,  feelings,  and  all  the 
relationships  of  the  family  we  sustained  here.  What  is 
death ,  if  not  an  utter  annihilation  from  our  mind  of  this 
eternal  world  and  our  memories  of  the  past  ? 

Nor  is  it  possible  to  perceive  any  essential  difference 
when  “faith”  is  the  motive-power  of  an  epidemic  as 
procuring  cause  of  suicide  and  murder.  It  was  in 
October  of  the  year  1850,  only  about  two  years  after 
the  birth  of  modern  mediumship,  when  Hannah,  in  the 
garb  of  a  young  man  bearing  the  name  of  “  George 
Sand,”  consulted  me  about  this  murder  and  suicide. 
Here  is  her  letter  :  — 


IDEOLOGY. 


1 66 


“Quincy,  Mass.,  Oct.  15,  1850. 

“  Dr.  LaRoy  Sunderland,  Editor  of  the  “  Spiritual  Philoso¬ 
pher,”  Boston:  — 

“  Dear  Sir,  —  I  would  like  to  have  your  candid  opinion  as 
to  whether  suicide  would  hinder  our  progression  after  death  ? 
Please  answer,  and  oblige, 

Yours,  &c., 

George  Sand.” 

Alas  !  those  deluded  children  did  not  wait  to  take 
my  answer  from  the  post-office,  but,  leaving  a  copy  of 
Andrew  Jackson  Davis’s  “Divine  Revelations  and 
Voice  to  Mankind”  at  their  boarding-place,  they 
sought  a  secluded  spot  in  the  edge  of  Braintree,  where 
that  young  husband  put  a  bullet  through  the  heart  of 
his  young  wife,  and  then  blew  out  his  own  brains  with 
the  same  weapon  !  They  remained  where  they  fell  till 
the  next  February,  when  their  bodies  were  discovered, 
partly  covered  with  snow.  During  their  stay  in  Quincy, 
Hannah  dressed  in  male  attire,  and  was  known  by  the 
name  of  “George  Sand,”  and  passed  as  the  “cousin” 
of  John.  They  had  left  Zanesville,  Ohio,  clandestinely, 
nor  could  the  parents  hear  anything  from  them  or  of 
them  until  more  than  three  months  after  they  were 
dead. 

I  have  a  vivid  recollection  of  that  horrible  affair,  nor 
have  I  forgotten  that  the  Boston  Morning  Post  news¬ 
paper  of  Feb.  18,  1851,  the  next  day  after  those  dead 
bodies  were  found,  implicated  me  as  one  of  the  two 
parties  who  should  be  held  as  responsible  for  that 
murder  and  suicide.  But,  then,  this  was  not  the  first 
nor  the  last  false  accusation  made  by  the  newspaper 
press  against  me  during  the  last  fifty  years. 

As  I  cannot  affirm  that  such  details  are  agreeable  to 
me,  I  will  therefore  confine  myself  to  only  a  few  cases 


THE  CONTAGIOUS  DANCE  OF  DEATH. 


167 


out  of  the  many  similar  ones  that  have  occurred,  — 
cases  of  which  I  have  had  more  or  less  knowledge. 

judson  j.  Hutchinson’s  suicide. 

Mr.  H.  was  the  first  one  who  was  ever  attempted  to 
be  “  magnetized  ”  by  a  “  deadhead,”  and  it  proved  a  sad 
disaster  to  him  and  his  family  in  the  fall  of  1850.  He 
visited  the  Fox  family,  then  in  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  and 
was  told  that  his  dead  brother  Benjamin  would  “mag¬ 
netize  him.”  With  that  idea  he  became  fascinated \ 
was  on  hand  at  the  hour  agreed  upon,  and  from  that 
day  he  was  i?isanc  until  he  hung  himself  on  High  Rock, 
Lynn,  Mass.,  where  his  family  then  resided.  I  was  at 
the  time  on  business  in  Providence,  R.  I.,  where  his 
brother  Jesse  telegraphed  me  to  come  and  attend 
Judson  to  the  insane  hospital  at  Hartford,  Ct.  As  a 
musician  he  was  extensively  known  both  in  this  country 
and  in  England ;  and  who  but  a  fanatic  would  under¬ 
take  to  tell  me  that  the  sensational  idea  in  modern 
mediumship  did  not  cost  that  sweet  singer  his  life  ? 
It  belonged  not  only  to  his  wife  and  children,  his  family 
and  friends,  but  to  humanity  and  all  lovers  of  liberty 
and  free  thought ;  and  to  this  I  should  add,  that  the 
very  spot  on  High  Rock  where  Judson  J.  Hutchinson 
ended  his  life  by  his  own  act  was  the  place  where  the 
“wonder-monger-in-chief,”  A.  J.  Davis,  only  a  short 
time  before,  had  reported  himself  as  having  been  in 
solemn  counsel  with  a  large  convention  of  “  deadheads,” 
or  “spirits  ;”  and  not  one  of  that  angelic  conclave  had 
any  eyes  to  see  poor  H.  hanging  on  that  gallows ;  nor 
did  Mr.  Davis,  who  claims  for  his  own  “  clairvoyant 
vision  ”  an  eye  big  enough  to  “see  beyond  the  bounds 
of  time  and  space.”  Surely,  an  eye  as  big  as  that 


1 68 


IDEOLOGY. 


ought  to  have  anticipated  Hutchinson’s  death  and  pre¬ 
vented  it ! 

This  case  deserves  some  further  notice  here.  Mr. 
H.  was  well  known  as  one  of  the  “  Hutchinson  family 
of  vocalists/'  both  in  this  country  and  in  England,  and 
as  a  musician  was  deservedly  popular.  He  was,  as  I  have 
said,  the  first  one  since  “the  dawn  of  mediumship  ” 
who  was  said  to  be  “ magnetised  by  spirits”!  This 
term  had  never  been  heard  of  until  it  was  used  in  his 
case  ;  and  it  is  equally  well  known  that  from  the  hour 
that  idea  had  found  a  lodgment  in  his  mind  Mr. 
Hutchinson  was  insane,  and  for  a  series  of  years,  until 
he  hung  himself  on  High  Rock,  where  A.  J.  Davis  had 
held  his  “congress  of  spirits”  a  short  time  before. 

In  October,  1850,  he  and  his  brother  Jesse  visited 
the  “  mediums  ”  in  the  Fox  family  to  witness  the  “  mys¬ 
terious  knockings,”  as  this  subject  was  at  that  time 
called.  They  had  had  a  brother  named  Benjamin,  then 
dead,  and  Judson  was  completely  bewitched  by  a  “mes¬ 
sage”  that  purported  to  come  from  that  dead  brother, 
saying,  “/  will  magnetize  you"  !  To  that  idea  he 
yielded,  nor  was  he  ever  perfectly  sane  from  that  hour 
till  he  evinced  “the  practical  in  mediumship”  by 
causing  his  own  death,  as  above  stated.  Finding  his 
brother  insane,  Jesse  took  him  to  their  home  in  Mil¬ 
ford,  N.  H.,  and  telegraphed  to  me,  then  in  Providence, 
R.  I.,  to  come  to  Milford  immediately  and  attend  him. 
This  I  did.  I  spent  a  week  with  him  at  his  own  home, 
and  by  the  advice  of  his  family  I  accompanied  him  to 
the  insane  asylum.  Mr.  Hutchinson  had  a  clergyman, 
Rev.  William  Patten,  for  a  brother-in-law,  and,  as  if  to 
compensate  me  for  my  generous  labors  for  the  relief  of 
my  friend  H.,  Mr.  Patten,  in  one  of  the  papers,  charged 


THE  CONTAGIOUS  DANCE  OF  DEATH. 


169 


me  as  having  caused  Mr.  Hutchinson’s  derangement ! 
But  all  I  deem  it  necessary  here  to  say  is,  that  I  shall 
never  adopt  Mr.  Patten’s  views  of  “  fire  and  brim¬ 
stone  ”  as  a  remedy  for  insanity,  or  ever  be  very  likely 
to  accept  of  him  as  my  instructor  in  mental  or  moral 
philosophy. 

From  the  first,  I  never  lost  sight  of  poor  Hutchinson, 
and  I  am  sure  that  his  insanity  was  superinduced  by 
the  idea  of  being  “magnetized  by  the  spirit  of  his 
dead  brother.”  He  was  bewitched  and  carried  away 
by  this  idea,  as  thousands  of  others  since  have  been, 
and  who,  also,  like  him,  have  put  an  end  to  their  lives 
in  a  state  of  insanity.  Hence  this  case  of  Judson  and 
Jesse  Hutchinson  should  not  be  forgotten  as  long  as 
the  idea  of  mediumship  lingers  amongst  us.  He  was 
the  first  victim  to  this  idea,  and  pity  he  may  not  be 
said  also  to  have  been  the  last.  But  in  1858  the  num¬ 
ber  in  our  insane  hospitals  who  had  been  victimized  by 
this  insane  idea  were  over  two  thousand ;  and  by  the 
present  time  it  has  probably  been  more  than  doubled. 
Nor  can  there  be  any  reasonable  doubt  that  this  idea 
of  alleged  “revelations”  from  the  invisible  world  has 
done  more  mischief  in  rendering  its  victims  insane 
than  any  idea  of  any  other  one  thing  ever  did,  or  ever 
could  do.  In  the  nature  of  things  it  must  be  so.  The 
marvellousness  once  excited  to  a  certain  degree,  the 
throne  of  reason  is  wrecked ;  and,  of  all  mental  excite¬ 
ments,  the  excessive  excitement  of  marvellousness  or 
of  fear  is  attended  with  the  most  danger.  What  could 
be  more  calculated  to  excite  marvellousness  than  this 
idea  of  a  “revelation  from  the  dead ”?  Under  these 
appeals,  made  directly  to  the  organ  of  credulity ,  the 
strongest  minds  often  yield,  and  the  judgment  becomes 
weak  and  incapacitated  for  its  highest  functions. 


IDEOLOGY. 


170 


MURDER  BY  TWO  MEDIUMS. 

In  1855  an  account  appeared  in  the  Boston  papers 
of  the  murder  perpetrated  in  that  city  by  two  “  me¬ 
diums,”  one  of  whom  was  the  child’s  own  father! 

SUICIDE  BY  REV.  LUKE  HASKELL. 

He  was  a  medium,  and  fifty  years  of  age.  He  be¬ 
came  deeply  excited  by  the  reception  of  “messages” 
from  nondescripts  ih  the  unknown,  and  in  Bangor  com¬ 
mitted  suicide  in  1855. 

SUICIDE  OF  CHARLES  H.  WHIPPO. 

This  was  indeed  a  melancholy  case.  He  committed 
suicide,  Feb.  18,  1857,  aged  nineteen  years.  He  was 
a  medical  student,  and  the  son  of  Dr.  T.  C.  Whippo, 
of  Newcastle,  Pa.  Both  the  father  and  this  son  had 
become  deeply  interested  in  the  subject  of  “Spiritual¬ 
ism;”  and  about  that  time  Dr.  Whippo  had  written 
a  number  of  articles  in  favor  of  mediumship  for  the 
Spiritual  paper  then  published  at  New  York,  and 
giving  the  “  beautiful  communications  ”  he  had  received 
through  his  own  children,  who  were  mediums.  What, 
now,  must  have  been  the  emotions  of  this  fond  and 
doting  parent  when  he  next  entered  the  room  of  his 
son  Charles,  to  find  him  dead,  and  this  note  left  for 
him  upon  the  table  :  — 

“18th  February,  1857. 

“  Dear  Father,  —  Come  and  get  m37  dead  body. 

“Charles  Whippo.” 

On  an  envelope  were  written  the  words,  “  Oh  !  I  am 
a  murderer  !  ”  He  had  received  two  letters  the  same 
afternoon,  which  he  had  destroyed ;  but  the  envelope 


THE  CONTAGIOUS  DANCE  OF  DEATH.  1 7 1 

upon  one  of  them  was  found.  It  was  in  a  lady’s  hand¬ 
writing,  and  post-marked  “Salem,  Ohio,  Feb.  17th.” 

He  had  been  deeply  interested  in  mediumship,  and 
at  one  time  was  located  at  Salem,  Ohio,  where  he  be¬ 
came  enamored  of  a  married  lady.  This  feeling  was 
evidently  reciprocated,  and  it  would  seem,  moreover, 
that  the  lady  was  also  a  Spiritualist.  The  deceased 
was  desirous  of  marrying  this  lady  in  spite  of  every 
obstacle,  and  he  seems  to  have  been  instigated  to  the 
act  by  supposed  communications  from  the  spirit  world. 
It  would  seem  as  though  one  or  both  of  the  letters 
received  that  afternoon  contained  information  which 
destroyed  the  hopes  of  the  deceased.  This  hypothesis 
is  strengthened  by  an  unsealed  note  which  was  found 
in  a  portfolio  belonging  to  him.  The  following  is  a 
copy  of  the  note,  only  omitting  the  name  of  the  lady  :  — 

“  Philadelphia,  18th  Feb.,  1857. 

“  My  Dearest  N - :  — 

“  I  will  see  you  in  the  spirit  form  before  you  will  have 
read  this,  my  last  communication  on  earth.  My  hopes  are 
blasted  forever ;  you  tell  me  we  can  never  hope  to  meet  on 
earth.  I  will  die  and  live  with  you  forever.  Farewell ! 
farewell !  Till  then  I  am  by  your  side. 

“  I  am  yours  in  heaven  as  I  have  been  on  earth. 

“  Charlie.” 

See  now,  as  regards  the  immense  mischief  which 
comes  of  taking  revelations  from  the  invisible  world 
as  authority  for  what  we  love,  believe,  or  do.  Look  at 
the  case  of  poor  Whippo.  Infatuated  child !  he  was 
told  by  this  nose  of  wax  that  that  married  woman  was 
his  conjugal  companion,  and  because  he  could  not  live 
near  to  her  in  this  world  he  resolved  on  suicide,  under 
the  unfounded  infatuation  that  as  soon  as  dead  he 
should  be  by  the  side  of  that  lady. 


172 


IDEOLOGY. 


MURDER  OF  A  CHILD. 

In  the  same  paper  from  which  I  copy  the  foregoing 
account  of  young  Whippo’s  case  I  find  the  following, 
as  if  to  add  to  the  public  warning  against  so  mon¬ 
strous  a  delusion,  and  to  show  how  futile  and  unsafe  it 
always  is  to  rely  on  alleged  “revelations”  from  the 
invisible  world.  An  invisible  criminal  can  be  held 
to  no  responsibility. 

In  the  town  of  Nassau,  N.  Y.,  some  five  years  be¬ 
fore  these  “revelations,”  a  lad  fifteen  years  old,  named 
Phillips,  was  found  hung  by  the  neck  in  his  father’s 
barn.  It  was  considered  very  improbable  that  he 
should  have  committed  suicide,  and  his  family  sup¬ 
posed  that  in  attempting  to  mimic  some  of  the  gym¬ 
nastics  of  a  circus,  which  he  had  visited  the  previous 
day,  he  was  accidentally  hanged.  But  at  a  circle  the 
spirit  of  young  Phillips  was  invoked,  and,  in  answer  to 
questions,  he  declared  that  he  had  been  murdered  by 
his  own  mother,  who  first  drove  a  nail  into  his  head, 
and  then  hung  his  body  up ;  and  that  she  did  this  to 

4 

prevent  his  disclosing  to  his  father  her  illicit  inter¬ 
course  with  another  man.  This  astounding  develop¬ 
ment  of  crime  produced  the  wildest  excitement,  and 
such  was  the  state  of  public  feeling  that  it  was  thought 
best  to  test  the  truth  of  the  affair  by  an  examination 
of  the  remains. 

A  coroner  was  procured  from  Troy,  with  a  corps  of 
physicians,  and  the  remains  of  the  boy  were  taken  up 
and  examined.  The  skull  was  found  perfectly  whole 
and  sound,  and  no  indication  of  violence  was  discovered 
anywhere.  Thus  was  the  terrible  mystery  at  once 
exploded.  But  its  consequences  are  not  so  easily 


THE  CONTAGIOUS  DANCE  OF  DEATH. 


173 


remedied :  the  woman  who  was  the  subject  of  these 
cruel  suspicions  became  seriously  ill  from  the  fearful 
excitement  through  which  she  passed,  and  may  never 
fully  recover  from  its  effects. 

THE  SUICIDE  OF  MISS  HATTIE  A.  EAGER. 

This  young  lady  was  widely  known  and  extolled 
among  the  Spiritualists  in  Boston  as  “  a  most  excellent 
and  popular  medium,”  until  November  23,  1856,  when 
she  committed  suicide  “ under  spirit  control.”  There 
happened  to  be  two  of  Hattie’s  friends  (Mr.  Y.,  a  medi¬ 
cal  student,  and  Miss  J.,  both  my  friends  also)  at  the 
tea-table  (referred  to  below  by  Mr.  Newton  in  the 
New  England  Spiritualist ,  Dec.  6,  1856).  That  was 
Hattie’s  “last  supper”!  She  had  that  fatal  poison 
then  prepared  in  her  chamber,  and  which  she  swallowed 
a  few  moments  after;  and  no  “angel”  was  near 
enough  to  lift  a  single  note  of  warning  !  That  was  an 
awfid  moment !  Mr.  A.  E.  Newton,  hoodwinked  by 
his  “faith,”  thus  speaks  of  it :  — 

“  At  the  tea-table  she  conversed  with  her  usual  vivacity, 
ministering  with  acts  of  kindness  to  those  about  her,  and 
betraying  by  no  sign  or  deed  that  there  was  anything  extraor¬ 
dinary  in  her  condition  of  mind  or  body.  At  the  close  of 
the  meal,  however,  still  sitting  at  the  table,  she  was  thrown 
into  a  trance,  and  drew  with  pencil  and  paper  a  casket, 
writing  under  it  these  words,  1  In  a  few  hours  all  will  be 
revealed, l  A  few  hours  subsequent  opened  her  eyes  to  the 
wonders  of  that  higher  life  upon  whose  scenes  mortality  has 
never  looked.  The  struggle  for  release  was  at  first  violent 
and  painful.” 

Of  course  her  death  must  have  been  painful,  as  the 
post  mortem  examination  proved  that  it  was  caused  by 
poiso7i ;  and  I  was  assured  by  those  who  were  present 


174 


IDEOLOGY. 


that  her  death  struggles  were  horrible.  She  vomited 
in  most  excruciating  agony  for  some  hours,  and  was 
convulsed  from  her  head  to  her  feet.  These  two  friends 
above  referred  to  reported  the  facts  to  me  the  next 
morning,  when  I  pronounced  it  a  case  of  suicide,  and 
referred  them  to  two  surgeons  in  the  Massachusetts 
Hospital.  Her  autopsy  was  kept  from  the  knowledge 
of  all  the  mediums.  In  Hattie’s  stomach  the  surgeons 
found  twenty  grains  of  corrosive  sublimate,  after  all 
she  may  have  vomited  up ;  and  from  a  tumbler  on  her 
wash-stand  they  took  thirty  grains  more, — showing 
how  determined  she  had  been  to  die  “  under  spirit 
control.” 

While  this  post  mortem  was  going  on  in  the  chamber 
above,  a  dozen,  more  or  less,  of  “mediums”  were 
holding  a  “seance”  in  the  parlor  below,  one  of  whom 
personified  Hattie  A.  Eager,  and  this  medium  made 
Hattie  say  that  — 

“  She  had  found  her  transit  from  this  earth  to  the  ‘summer- 
land  ’  most  delightful,  and  that  she  had  left  that  glorious 
region  to  be  present  at  this  seance,  in  order  to  assure  them 
that  it  was  now  all  explained.” 

And,  when  her  body  was  carried  to  the  cemetery  in 
the  country,  one  of  the  numerous  mediums  that  fol¬ 
lowed  in  a  carriage  personified  her  again,  and  often 
cracked  jokes  about  “fine  horses”  that  drew  them 
towards  the  tomb  !  As  Mr.  Newton  had  announced 
this  death  as  an  “  evidence  of  the  truth  of  Spiritual¬ 
ism,”  in  the  city  papers,  I  cautioned  the  public  to  wait 
until  they  were  informed  as  to  the  autopsy,  and  the 
next  day  I  published  the  verdict  of  the  surgeons,  and 
showed  that,  if  Hattie  A  Eager  was  “under  the  ‘con- 


THE  CONTAGIOUS  DANCE  OF  DEATH. 


175 


trol  of  her  guardian  angels,’  they  had  certainly  mur¬ 
dered  her.”  Here  I  give  the  laconic  reply  that  this 
same  A.  E.  Newton  made  to  my  expose  of  the  mon¬ 
strous  fraud  practised  upon  human  ignorance  of  man’s 
condition  after  death,  and  of  human  credulity.  Mr. 
Newton  said: — • 

“  Admit  that  Miss  Hattie  A.  Eager  was  murdered  by  spirits , 

WHAT  THEN  ?  ” 

We  proved,  bear  in  mind,  that  Miss  Eager  had  been 
disappointed  in  a  love  affair,  and  that  she  was  always 
“  under  spirit  control,”  and  had  for  months  previously 
predicted  her  own  deatJi  ! 

This  case  was  so  marked  in  all  its  features  that  it 
made  a  decided  sensation  throughout  the  city.  The 
Spiritualists  everywhere  trusted  in  her  mediumship , 
and  she  was  puffed  in  the  New  England  Spiritualist , 
edited  by  A.  E.  Newton.  Here  is  the  style  in  which 
this  Spiritual  editor  speaks  of  Miss  Eager  after  her 
death  :  — 

“  It  is  well  known  among  Spiritualists  that  this  young  lady 
was  possessed  of  medium  powers.  She  appeared  to  be  un- . 
usually  susceptible  to  spirit  influences,  and  could  be  thrown 
into  the  interior  or  trance  state  almost  instantaneously,  and 
as  quickly  be  restored  to  her  normal  condition,  —  and  this 
without  the  apparent  nervous  excitement  generally  manifest 
in  mediums.  So  quietly  was  the  influence  thrown  upon  her 
and  removed  that  even  at  the  table  during  meals  she  would 
speak  to  her  intimate  friends  for  some  spirit  who  wished  to 
convey  them  a  message,  without  arresting  the  attention  or 
exciting  the  suspicion  of  any  stranger  who  might  be  present. 

“  Her  bosom  friend  and  companion  took  occasion  one 
day  when  she  was  entranced  to  call  for  an  explanation  from 
the  spirits  as  to  what  they  meant  by  their  statement.  In 
reply  they  proceeded  to  give  the  reasons  why  she  had  not 
been  taken  away  at  the  precise  time  anticipated ;  but  asserted 


176 


IDEOLOGY. 


with  emphasis,  ‘  In  a  fortnight  she  will  not  be  with  you 
This  assertion  was  made  thirteen  days  previous  to  her  de¬ 
parture.  No  revelation  of  this  was  made  to  Miss  Eager  in 
her  natural  state,  and  she  consequently  remained  still  in 
ignorance  that  any  precise  time  had  been  designated.” 

Notice  the  infatuation  and  the  utter  ignorance  of 
psychology  manifested  by  this  oracle,  A.  E.  Newton. 

1.  He  concedes  that  a  medium  entranced  is  in  an 
unnatural  state!  From  this  it  follows  that  these 
invisibles  that  involve  human  beings  in  an  unnatural 
state  have  no  business  here,  and  especially  when  they 
predict  the  death  of  their  victims,  and  then  murder 
them  to  fulfill  what  they  had  predicted ! 

2.  “No  revelation  was  made  of  her  predicted  death 
to  Miss  Eager”  when  she  was  not  entranced;  and 
what  monstrous  stultification  is  here  manifested !  As 
if  Miss  Eager  did  not  in  her  own  selfhood  know  what 
she  had  said  in  her  trance  about  her  own  death  !  And 
if  she  did  not  know,  then  I  say  let  the  curse  of 

HUMANITY  FALL  UPON  ALL  THIS  INFATUATION  that  SO 

stultifies  the  mind  of  any  persons  that  they  cannot  know 
when  they  are  threatened  with  immediate  death  ! 

3.  But  the  truth  is,  there  never  was  a  case  of  the 
artificial  trance  like  that  in  Mesmerism  and  in  modern 
mediumship,  but  when  the  patients  do  remember  all 
they  wish  to  ;  and  if  they  do  not,  or  say  they  do  not , 
remember ,  it  is  because  they  so  decided  in  the  trance 
not  to  remember !  They  can  and  they  do  remember 
whatever  they  desire  to  remember. 

4.  And  what  a  farce  modern  mediumship  makes  of 
what  its  victims  call  “tests  ”  as  to  the  personal  identity 
of  an  invisible  nondescript  ?  Look  at  the  case  of  this 
medium  :  Here  is  a  “  test”  for  you  !  A  medium  sur- 


THE  CONTAGIOUS  DANCE  OF  DEATH. 


1 77 


rounded  with  “  guardian  angels,”  who  for  five  months 
plotted  her  destruction  !  Who,  not  obf:iscated  with  this 
monstrous  delusion  of  mediumship  between  the  dead 
and  the  living ,  can  for  a  moment  believe  such  an  ab¬ 
surdity  ?  And  it  is  because  it  is  so  absurd  that  this 
suicide  of  this  young  lady  has  been  designedly  ignored 
to  the  present  day. 

5.  And  more  :  Could  it  be  supposed  that  this  suicide 
carried  with  her  exit  into  the  unknown  a  perfect  recol¬ 
lection,  then  how  great  a  card  the  death  of  this  medium 
was  at  first  considered  for  Spiritualism  all  over  this 
planet,  may  be  seen  from  Mr.  Newton’s  announcement 
of  this  “predicted  ”  event  in  his  own  paper  :  — 

“  Singular  Premonitions.  —  Miss  Hattie  A.  Eager,  on 
the  night  of  Tuesday,  Nov.  23d,  laid  aside  the  earth  gar¬ 
ments  which  she  had  worn  for  22  years,  to  assume  the 
brighter  robe  of  the  angels.  Many  of  the  circumstances 
preceding  the  recent  departure  of  Miss  Eager  to  the  spirit- 
world  are  of  a  remarkable  and  singularly  interesting  char¬ 
acter.” —  New  England  Spiritualist ,  Dec.  6,  1856. 

My  own  views  of  this  case  I  gave  in  one  or  two  of 
the  city  papers,  as  follows  :  — 

“  I  noticed  that  you  published,  a  few  days  since  a  para¬ 
graph  which  has  been  ‘going  the  rounds  of  the  papers,’ 
respecting  a  young  lady  in  this  city,  who,  as  it  is  now  alleged, 
died  according  to  some  predictions  which  she  had  made  of 
herself ;  and  that  at  her  funeral  certain  other  ‘  mediums  ’ 
said  certain  things  purporting  to  come  from  the  departed 
‘  spirit  ’  of  that  young  lady  and  other  ‘  spirits  ’  who  were 
present  on  that  occasion. 

“  Having  myself  inquired  of  those  well  acquainted  with 
that  young  lady,  I  must  give  it  as  my  opinion,  founded  on  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  the  facts  in  this  case,  that  there  was 
no  real  prediction  of  her  death,  except  what  she  made  from 
her  own  decision.  I  am  assured  that  she  had  been  disap- 


i/S 


IDEOLOGY. 


pointed  in  a  love  affair,  —  sadly  so,  —  having  had  her  hopes 
excited  for  some  two  years. 

“The  person  on  whom  she  had  relied  as  her  lover  was 
away,  and  she  was  daily  and  hourly  expecting  his  return, 
when  she  was  assured  he  would  return  to  her  no  more.  On 
the  reception  of  this  intelligence  she  clothed  herself  in 
mourning,  and  spoke  of  her  own  death  as  a  certainty  near 
at  hand.  And,  now,  when  we  consider  her  vomiting  and 
other  symptoms,  we  should  wait,  I  think,  the  results  of  the 
post  mortem  examination.  For  myself,  I  see  no  evidence  of 
anything  spiritual  in  the  facts  of  this  case,  while  there  is  any 
amount  of  evidence  to  show  to  what  a  lamentable  extent  the 
marvellousness  of  a  certain  class  of  temperaments  may  be¬ 
come  excited,  and  how  poorly  able  some  persons  are  to  bear 
the  troubles  which  are  the  common  lot  of  humanity.”  — 
Bosto?i  Herald ,  Dec.  5,  1856. 

Yet,  in  despite  of  this  caution ,  the  editor  of  the  New 
England  Spiritualist ,  in  his  next  paper,  gets  off  the 
following  report  of  one  of  his  “  privileges  :  ”  — 

“  It  was  the  editor’s  privilege  to  be  present  at  a  circle  held 
on  the  afternoon  of  the  day  succeeding  Miss  Eager’s  release, 
at  which  she  was  the  first  person  to  manifest  herself.  Giving, 
at  the  outset,  to  a  gentleman  present,  a  singular  and  satis¬ 
factory  test  of  her  identity,  she  proceeded,  though  in  great 
weakness ,  to  say  a  few  words  to  the  circle.  They  were  to  the 
amount  that,  though  still  very  weak  and  overwhelmed  with 
the  beauty  and  glories  which  had  just  opened  upon  her 
vision,  and  with  the  love  which  had  been  showered  upon 
her  ransomed  spirit  by  the  bands  of  bright  ones  who  had 
welcomed  her  there,  she  felt  that  she  must  come  and  tell 
her  earthly  friends  of  her  joy  at  the  change,  and  assure  them 
that  1  it  is  all  true.'  The  occasion  was  affecting  and  joyous 
beyond  description.” 

It  was  “affecting,”  no  doubt  ;  but  I  wonder  how  the 
occasion  would  have  seemed  to  that  “circle”  had  the 
“  spirit  ”  of  that  unfortunate  young  lady  really  appeared 
there,  and  said  to  them  as  follows  ?  — 


THE  CONTAGIOUS  DANCE  OF  DEATH. 


179 


“  It  was  not  all  true,  as  I  thought  at  the  time  I  was  acting 
as  a  medium.  I  was  hallucinated  with  the  idea  of  ‘  spirit 
control,’  and,  bamboozled  with  that  false  idea,  I  swallowed 
poison  and  caused  my  own  death.” 

THE  FARCE  AT  HER  FUNERAL. 

One  medium  closes  her  eyes,  shakes  her  limbs, 
passes  her  hand  over  her  face,  and  says,  “  I  am  Hattie, 
now  speaking  to  you.”  Other  mediums  got  off  eulogies 
of  Hattie  and  the  “beautiful  faith”  of  which  she  had 
been  the  exponent,  and  in  the  firm  belief  in  which 
Hattie  had  died.  This  farce  was  renewed  by  the 
Spiritualists  at  their  meeting  the  next  Sunday  after 
Hattie’s  suicide.  That  poor  lunatic,  John  M.  Spear, 
was  the  principal  speaker.  He  proposed  to  have  Miss 
Eager  s  portrait  hung  up  in  their  hall,  at  which  they 
could  always  gaze,  while  they  should  be  thus  stimu¬ 
lated  to  imitate  her  !  Hear  him  :  — 

“  Imitating  thee ,  they  would  be  firm  ;  imitating  thee ,  they 
would  be  tranquil ;  imitating  thee ,  they  would  welcome  the 
approach  of  the  loving  messenger  who  guides  to  fairer  and 
more  peaceful  realms.  A  little  band  of  choice  ones,  assem¬ 
bling  weekly  at  this  place,  would  look  upon  thy  countenance 
as  it  was.  They  now  pledge  themselves  to  prepare  a  suitable 
memento  of  thyself,  that  weekly  their  eyes  may  rest  upon  it, 
and  that  thy  example  may  inspire  them  to  holy  lives.” 

And  thus  John  M.  Spear  will  commit  suicide,  if,  as 
he  pledges  himself,  he  does  really  follow  Hattie’s  ex¬ 
ample  ;  for  this  is  not  John  himself  speaking,  remem¬ 
ber,  but  a  “holy  spirit  ”  speaking  through  him.  Hence 
he  says  :  — 

“  The  above  was  communicated  through  me,  with  a  request 
that  it  should  be  read  to  the  friends  assembled  this  day  at 
Horticultural  Hall,  accompanied  by  the  suggestion  that  a 


i8o 


IDEOLOGY. 


likeness  of  Hattie  be  taken,  and  that  the  same  should  be 
placed  in  the  Hall.” 

The  picture  of  Miss  Eager  should  be  hung  up,  not 
only  in  that  hall,  but  also  in  every  hall  and  every  room 
where  “test  circles,”  “anniversary”  meetings,  “con¬ 
ventions,”  and  “seances”  are  held  in  behalf  of  that 
cause  which  cost  this  young  lady  her  life ;  and  to  her 
picture  I  would  have  this  truthful  motto  conspicuously 
attached :  — 

“  Admit ,”  says  Mr.  A.  E.  Newton,  “  that  Miss  Hattie  A. 
Eager ,  the  popular  ?nedium,  was  ?nurdered  under  spirit  control , 
and  what  then  ?  ” 

MURDER  BY  A  SPIRITUALIST. 

John  Wesley  Layman,  a  Spiritualist,  murdered 
Cornelius  Cannon,  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  Dec.  20,  1856. 
Layman  was  standing  in  front  of  the  Dutch  Reformed 
Church  on  that  day  (Sunday),  when  Cannon,  passing 
with  his  team,  asked  him  to  ride.  Layman  got  into 
the  wagon,  and,  after  riding  half  a  mile,  shot  Cannon 
dead,  and  threw  his  body  into  the  road.  He  was  ar¬ 
rested  in  Jersey  City,  and  confessed  the  deed,  for 
which  he  had  no  motive  but  robbery.  The  prisoner 
was  a  native  of  New  York  City,  21  years  of  age,  a 
shoemaker,  and  a  Spiritualist.  Before  holding  the 
inquest  on  the  murdered  man,  two  physicians  were 
sent  to  examine  the  prisoner,  and  to  whom  he  gave  the 
following  account  of  himself  :  — 

“  He  said  he  was  a  Spiritualist.  The  spirits  manifested 
themselves  to  him  in  the  station-house.  They  were  pleased 
to  see  that  he  had  been  arrested.  They  wanted  to  get  him 
out  of  the  way.  Six  spirits  came  to  him :  one  was  Mrs. 
Dennison,  and  the  other  Mrs.  Robinson ;  saw  them  in  the 


THE  CONTAGIOUS  DANCE  OF  DEATH.  1 8 1 

street  some  time  ago ;  knew  that  it  was  Mrs.  Dennison,  as 
she  had  written  a  piece  about  a  little  girl,  which  appeared  in 
the  Sun  newspaper.  The  piece,  he  thought,  was  headed 
‘  A  Dying  Girl.’  He  thought  of  it  because  he  had  been 
transformed  into  Mrs.  Dennison,  and  he  remained  as  Mrs. 
Dennison  for  three  months.  He  worked  at  his  trade  all  the 
time  he  was  her.  She  manifested  the  fact  to  him  that  it  was 
so.  Subsequently  he  was  transformed  into  Mrs.  Robinson,  — 
the  change  having  been  brought  about  by  witchery,  —  and 
that  it  was  their  object,  as  well  as  their  interest,  to  kill  him ; 
for  in  that  event  they  would  be  more  honored  in  the  spirit 
world.  One  reason  why  he  wanted  money  was  that  the 
spirit  of  the  first-named  imaginary  lady  spoke  to  him  about 
his  poverty  and  degradation.  She  did  not  wish  him  to  be¬ 
come  rich,  but  would  be  pleased  to  see  him  go  to  destruction. 

“  The  prisoner  went  on  in  this  strain  for  more  than  half 
an  hour,  making  the  most  absurd  statements,  and  at  the 
same  time  preserving  the  most  imperturbable  gravity  of 
countenance.” 

So  much  as  to  the  contagious  suicides  and  murders 
of  one  widespread  mental  epidemic  !  Murders  enough, 
surely,  to  be  charged  to  those  now  dead.  But,  as  if 
there  were  not  enough  to  bring  down  humanity’s  bitter 
malediction  upon  this  widespread  contagion,  I  have  a 
long  article  1  cut  from  the  Boston  Herald  of  Nov.  24, 
1874,  said  to  have  been  quoted  from  the  St.  Louis 
Democrat.  The  gist  of  it  is,  that  a  “spirit”  or  “dead¬ 
head”  murdered  a  man  that  he  had  hated  previous  to 
his  death  ;  and  to  kill  him,  this  “  spirit  ”  materialized 
in  the  features,  form,  and  dress  of  this  man,  and  then 
allowed  itself  be  seen  in  the  act  of  murder.  Of  course 
the  man  was  arrested,  and  there  could  be  no  suspicion 
of  any  one  else.  He  was  tried,  convicted,  and  died  in 
prison.  I  do  not  believe  a  word  of  it.  It  was  a  pretence 
to  glorify  a  medium  by  the  name  of  Betty  Milton. 
But,  if  it  were  true,  it  explodes  what  materialization  is 


182 


IDEOLOGY. 


estimated  for  in  modern  mediumship  ;  and  it  is  a  sad 
disgrace,  whether  true  or  false. 

And  who  can  believe  such  deeds  could  be  done 
As  those  I  have  asked  you  to  ponder  upon? 

Deeds  without  a  name,  whether  true  or  not; 

So  awfully  vile  they  cannot  be  forgot ! 


CHAPTER  XV. 


AND  WHAT  THEN? 


Admit  that  Miss  Eager  was  murdered  by  spirits ,  what  then?” — Editor  N.  E. 
Spiriticalist. 

“Then?”  My  answer  is,  that  modern  mediumship 
is  a  monstrous  fraud  upon  human  credulity,  and  it 
deserves  to  be  banished  from  the  face  of  our  globe  ! 
It  settles  but  one  question  :  if  we  concede  that  the 
so-called  “spirits”  once  inhabited  bodies  like  ours, 
their  physical  memory  of  us  and  this  world  were  left 
in  the  grave  with  their  physical  brains ;  otherwise  no 
human  mediumship  would  be  necessary.  Hence  the 
fraud  in  the  pretence  that  we  are  talking  with  our 
relatives  through  any  “test  medium”  between  us. 
Therefore  modern  mediumship  presents  no  proof  (ad¬ 
mitting  the  spirit  theory),  no  proof  whatever,  either 
that  there  is  more  than  one  spirit  that  can  communi¬ 
cate  through  one  medium,  or  that  the  spirits  (if  spirits 
there  be)  ever  went  from  this  world.  And  mediumship 
is  itself  sufficient  proof  that  the  “spirits”  can  do 
nothing  and  they  know  nothing  of  this  world. 

Nor  could  a  greater  absurdity  be  conceived,  that  for 
a  hundred  thousand  years  past  the  relatives  of  the 
living  have  carried  the  physical  memory  of  this  world 
with  them  into  that  unknown  beyond,  and  yet  they 
never  made  it  known  to  us  till  just  now!  The  idea 


184 


IDEOLOGY. 


is  preposterous.  Indeed,  it  is  not  now  known  ;  the 
advent  of  this  form  of  mediumship  discovers  a  non¬ 
descript  ghost,  and  then  through  a  medium’s  brain 
to  sees  and  hears  what  name  it  shall  take,  and  how  it 
shall  gratify  “my  medium”!  Humanity  will  never 
invest  in  a  fraud  so  barefaced  as  this !  It  settles 
nothing  in  regard  to  the  future  of  the  race.  “Faith” 
in  mystical  phenomena  settles  nothing.  It  is  simply 
the  motive-power  by  which  this  human  movement  is 
carried  on ;  and  all  the  nervous  and  mental  phenom¬ 
ena  are  induced  by  laws  that  inhere  in  the  human 
organism.  But  this  monstrous  epidemic,  convicted 
and  floored  by  its  own  conduct,  and  pierced  by  the 
arrows  of  truth ,  now  turns  upon  us,  appalled  with  its 
defeat,  and  mutters,  “Well,  what  then?” 

Convicted  of  murder  and  suicide,  and  doomed,  all 
the  answer  we  get  is,  “  What  then  ?  ”  In  such  a  con¬ 
fusion  of  judgment  we  see  the  delusion,  the  deception, 
the  fraud,  in  this  attempt  to  pry  into  the  secrets  of  the 
grave.  The  criminal,  summoned  to  answer  for  the 
murder  he  has  committed,  admits  his  guilt,  and  then 
turns  his  eye  upon  the  court  and  exclaims,  “What 
then  ?”  Let  it  be  borne  in  mind,  this  medium-mania 
admits  that  “ Hattie  A.  Eager  was  murdered  by  spirits." 
This  is  not  my  theory  ;  it  is  of  the  human  that  I  speak. 
Mediums  are  human  beings.  The  epidemic  by  which 
they  become  bewitched  is  a  human  movement  from 
first  to  last.  But  no  mathematical  problem  was  ever 
more  clearly  demonstrated  than  the  psychological, 
“spiritual  ”  conclusion,  that  if  the  mediumistic  hypothe¬ 
sis  is  true,  the  suicide  of  this  young  lady  and  the  other 
cases  of  murder  and  suicide  that  I  have  described  were 
planned  and  perpetrated  “under  the  control  of  guardian 


WHAT  THEN  ? 


185 


spirits.”  All  mediums,  like  Hattie,  have  a  good  deal 
to  say  about  their  “guardian  spirits,”  “spirit  guides,” 
and  “bands  of  spirits.”  Mediums  advertise  in  the 
“spiritual  papers”  to  this  effect,  and  to  send  slips  of 
paper,  for  a  fee,  which  have  been  “magnetized”  by  a 
“band  of  spirits,”  for  the  cure  of  sick  people.  And  no 
medium  was  ever  known  in  Boston  that  was  estimated 
so  highly  in  this  regard  as  Hattie  A.  Eager  was,  from 
the  showing  of  A.  E.  Newton,  editor  of  the  New 
England  Spiritualist ,  who  says,  “  Hosts  of  the  angelic 
world”  and  “guardian  spirits  constantly  gathered 
around  that  medium  by  day  and  night.”  And  all  the 
five  months  during  which  they  were  “predicting  her 
death,” — not  her  suicide,  but  her  death,  —  all  that 
“heavenly  host  ”  knew  how  her  death  was  to  be  brought 
about.  For  five  months  those  “angelic  guardians”  of 
Hattie’s  were  “ predicting ”  her  death,  and  they  pre¬ 
dicted  it  at  the  tea-table,  after  she  had  secured  the 
poison  in  her  room,  where  she  in  a  few  moments  after 
swallowed  it,  and  died  a  most  distressing  and  horrible 
death.  If  you  say  that  she  must  have  been  crazed  to 
do  as  she  did,  I  reply  it  was  her  own  ideas  of  “  spirit 
control  ”  by  which  she  became  so  bewildered.  The  in¬ 
visibles  are  know-nothings  of  us,  and  we  know  nothing 
of  them.  Hence  all  persons  “entranced”  are  more  or 
less  hallucinated  and  “crazed;”  and  no  suicide  or 
murder  was  ever  longer  deliberated  or  more  designedly 
planned  and  determined  upon  than  this  one  of  Miss 
Eager.  “  What  then  ?  ” 

In  this  behalf,  modern  mediumship  is  worse  than 
ancient  witchcraft ;  for,  while  thousands  were  un¬ 
justly  reputed  as  “witches,”  and  on  this  account  were 
cruelly  put  to  death,  the  bewitched  did  not  commit 


IDEOLOGY. 


1 86 

suicide,  or  murder  one  another.  No  young  man,  only 
twenty-two  years  of  age,  in  ancient  witchcraft,  was 
ever  known  to  shoot  the  young  girl  of  fifteen  whom  he 
had  just  married,  and  then  blow  out  his  own  brains  by 
her  side.  Among  the  vast  numbers  victimized  by  that 
delusion  of  former  ages,  no  one  of  the  most  deluded 
ever  committed  self-murder,  or  was  murdered  by  one 
of  the  “imps”  by  which  they  believed  themselves 
“controlled.”  We  know  that  both  the  ancient  and 
the  modern  forms  of  what  has  been  called  “  spirit  con¬ 
trol  ”  have  originated  from  one  and  the  same  germ,  — 
that  is,  “faith  in  the  unknown.”  All  in  both  these 
epidemics  has  come  from  “faith  and  fear.”  Moreover, 
it  is  susceptible  of  demonstration  that  if  we  may  take 
the  Bible  and  philology  for  our  authority,  it  can  be 
easily  shown  that  witchcraft,  Christianity,  and  modern 
mediumship  all  originate  from  one  and  the  same  germ , 
as  I  have  elsewhere  stated,  — the  Hebrew  term,  me- 
chash-shai-phah ,  “to  bewitch;”  from  the  root,  ka-saph , 
“to  seduce,  turn  away,  deceive,  bewitch.”  And  this 
term,  with  the  corresponding  word  kashafa ,  in  Arabic, 
is  used  to  signify  “commerce  with  God,”-or  “commerce 
with  the  dead,  or  with  devils  ”  (see  Dr.  Adam  Clarke’s 
Commentary  on  Ex.  xxii.  18).  Hence,  humanity  has 
always  protested,  as  it  will  henceforth  more  and  more 
protest,  against  all  efforts  to  seek  “  commerce  with  any 
and  all  nondescript  invisibilities.”  No  matter  by  what 
name  the  epidemic  may  be  called,  it  is  witchcraft,  and 
results  in  mischief  to  the  human  race.  Credulity,  faith, 
and  fear  are  human ;  and,  these  emotions  excited,  the 
results  here  described  follow,  and  we  are  under  no 
necessity  of  attributing  them  to  those  now  in  their 
graves.  Hence,  if  we  admit  the  existence  of  nonde- 


WHAT  THEN  ? 


187 


script  intelligences  that  do  not  belong  to  this  world, 
mediumship  between  us  and  them  is  uncalled  for  either 
by  science  or  the  highest  good  of  the  race.  All  hob¬ 
goblins  are  utterly  unable  to  do  anything  without 
human  mediums.  All  ghosts  are  know-nothings  and 
utter  do-nothings,  except  through  human  credulity  and 
fear.  Hence,  we  know  of  no  mischief,  no  crime,  no 
murder,  which  is  not  traceable  to  human  weakness, 
fear,  and  credulity. 

Suicide. — Murder  is  horrible  enough  under  ordi¬ 
nary  circumstances,  and  when  these  sad  events  occur 
they  become  more  sad  and  distressing  still  when  we 
are  asked  to  believe  that  such  crimes  are  committed  by 
our  “guardian  angels,” — our  relatives  long  since  laid 
in  their  graves.  But  if  it  be  considered  the  greatest  of 
crimes  known  to  human  legislation  to  murder  the 
physical  body,  humanity  recognizes  a  greater  crime 
still  in  the  murder  of  the  human  mind.  A  false  idea,  . 
that  weakens  and  destroys  the  human  mind  and  mur¬ 
ders  the  body,  is  by  far  the  greatest  of  all  crimes.  This 
crime  includes  all  others.  If  by  a  single  blow  upon 
the  head  of  a  child  it  is  rendered  idiotic,  there  is  no 
atonement  for  such  a  crime,  no  remedy.  But  such  a 
blow  was  inflicted  upon  the  soul  of  John  R.  Grieve, 
who  shot  his  young  wife  and  then  himself,  in  Quincy, 
Mass.  A  heavier  blow,  and  more  disastrous  in  its 
consequences,  may  fall  upon  the  mind,  when  from  sug¬ 
gestions  outside  it  evolves  a  false  idea  that  results 
in  crime.  Through  the  sense  of  hearing,  a  false  idea 
was  evolved  in  young  Whippo’s  mind,  which  proved 
far  worse  for  him,  and  more  distressing  to  his  parents, 
than  if  he  had  been  instantly  killed  by  a  flash  of  light¬ 
ning.  And  in  the  same  way  a  blow  fell  upon  the  soul 


1 88 


IDEOLOGY. 


of  Hattie  A.  Eager.  That  false  idea  in  respect  to 
mediumship  and  “guardian  spirits  ”  was  a  fatal  blight ,  — 
a  death-stroke  to  her  soul,  her  selfhood,  her  self-control. 
She  surrendered  all  the  attributes  of  womanhood  to  a 
false  idea  that  annihilated  her  humanity  forever.  No 
more  severe  blow  could  fall  upon  any  young  lady  or 
any  human  being.  “What  then  ?  ” 

What  of  the  guardian  angels  ?  —  Of  no  one  idea  do 
modern  mediums  boast  so  much  as  that  they  are  con¬ 
stantly  watched  over  by  any  number  of  “guardian 
angels”  and  “bands  of  spirits.”  Asleep  or  awake,  at 
home  or  abroad,  upon  the  land  or  on  the  sea,  among 
friends  or  foes,  the  “heavenly  hosts,”  the  “guardian 
spirits,”  are  always  near.  Hattie  A.  Eager  had  her 
thousands  of  “invisible  protectors,”  defenders,  healers, 
“guardians;”  and  which  of  her  “guardian  spirits  ”  it 
was  that  for  five  months  planned,  predicted ,  and  finally 
encompassed  her  horrible  death,  has  never  yet  been 
disclosed.  The  Poughkeepsie  seer  has  boasted  of 
“St.  John”  as  one  of  his  numerous  “band  of  guardian 
spirits;”  Mr.  Pardee  assured  us  that  among  his 
“guardian  spirits”  he  numbered  “Socrates  and  Jesus, 
the  Nazarene;”  Judge  John  W.  Edmonds,  of  New 
York,  and  Dr.  George  J.  Dexter,  announce  in  two  large 
octavo  volumes  that  “Emanuel  Swedenborg”  and 
“Lord  Bacon”  were  their  “guardian  angels;”  and 
how  they  were  “guarded”  the  case  of  Miss  Eager 
leaves  us  no  room  to  doubt.  “  What  then  ?  ” 

“  The  World's  Medium .”  —  To  understand  what  kind 
of  a  medium  that  Mrs.  Conant  was  who  officiated  in 
the  Banner  office  in  Boston  for  a  series  of  years,  I  state 
one  fact  of  which  I  have  personal  knowledge.  She 
fabricated  “messages”  from  the  dead  that  were  pub- 


WHAT  THEN  ? 


189 


lished  in  the  “  Message  Department”  of  that  paper, 
in  order  to  ascertain  some  one  whom  they  would  fit. 
An  “obituary  notice”  of  the  death  of  a  young  Miss 
Graham,  Evansville,  Ind.,  was  published  in  the  Banner 
by  her  own  father  when  his  daughter  died.  She  had 
been  a  medium,  and  had  promised  her  father  a  post¬ 
mortem  message  through  the  Banner  of  Light.  Some 
three  months  afterwards  this  “Mrs.  Conant,”  who 
dubbed  herself  as  “a  medium  for  the  whole  world,” 
got  off  a  “message”  from  this  same  Miss  Graham’s 
obituary  which  appeared  in  the  “  Message  Department  ” 
of  the  Banner  of  Light ,  and  her  father  assured  me 
that  that  “message”  was  verbatim  the  same  “obituary 
notice”  that  he  had  himself  written  for  the  columns  of 
that  paper  !  Many  years  after  the  death  of  Theodore 
Parker,  I  heard  this  same  Mrs.  Conant  upon  the  public 
platform  of  Music  Hall,  Boston,  announce  herself  in 
these  words  :  — 

“  This  is  Theodore  Parker  that  is  now  addressing  you 
through  the  lips  of  his  medium  ”  ! 

Could  audacity  and  deception  go  farther  ?  And  when 
the  announcement  was  made,  Dec.  5,  1856,  in  the  city 
papers  of  Boston,  of  Miss  Eager’s  suicide,  the  Spirit¬ 
ualists  were  in  a  decided  quandary,  and  at  first  they 
denounced  that  representation  as  a  slander,  and  cau¬ 
tioned  the  public  not  to  believe  it.  But,  finally,  some 
of  the  mediums  had  to  admit  the  possibility  that  Miss 
Eager  had  brought  about  the  fulfillment  of  her  own 
oft-repeated  prediction  ;  and  then  it  was  that  this  “  Mrs. 
Conant,”  Mr.  A.  E.  Newton,  and  John  M.  Spear  set 
themselves  to  uttering  apologies  for  the  murder  com¬ 
mitted  by  Miss  Eager’s  guardian  spirits.  “The  spirits 


190 


IDEOLOGY. 


had  been  mistaken  in  their  messages  ”  about  matters 
and  things  made  through  John  M.  Spear,  and  Mr. 
Newton  accounts  for  their  “mistakes”  by  supposing 
that  “the  spirits  were  not  acquainted  with  all  the  facts 
in  the  case.”  Probably  not.  Here  is  what  he  says 
about  it :  — 

“  And  as  to  the  seemingly  too  lavish  tribute  expressed 
through  the  mediumship  of  Mr.  Spear,  —  this  was  evidently 
dictated  by  some  affectionate  mind  unacquainted  with  the 
clouds  which  had  darkened  the  pathway  of  their  object. 
It  is  not  improbable  that  Mr.  S.’s  spirit-daughter  (Mrs.  But¬ 
ler),  who,  we  understand,  was  a  personal  friend  of  Miss  E., 
was  the  author  of  those  kindly  sentiments.” 

Yes,  Mr.  Newton:  “the  spirits  were  unacquainted 
with  the  facts.”  That  is  the  true  state  of  the  case. 
Hattie  A.  Eager’s  “guardian  spirits”  did  not  know 
that  that  misguided,  deluded  girl  “  committed  suicide 
u,nder  spirit  influence,  Nov .  23,  1856.  Age  22.” 

And  here  I  ask  the  reader  to  say  how  such  mon¬ 
strous  absurdities  are  to  be  accounted  for,  except  upon 
the  theory  of  mental  epidemics,  explained  in  these 
pages  ?  And  in  this  mania  that  commits  these  mur¬ 
ders  and  suicides,  uncounted  thousands  are  this  day 
involved.  They  have  abandoned  soul  and  body  to  the 
“  control  ”  of  this  idea  of  “  guardian  spirits  ;  ”  and  when 
we  point  out  these  falsehoods,  contradictions,  insanities, 
murders,  and  suicides,  they  turn  upon  us  with  “Wbfat 
then  ?  ”  Even  “murder  committed  by  a  spirit  ”  seems 
to  be  considered  by  Spiritualists  as  a  very  light  affair. 
Notice  with  what  sheer  nonchalance  they  speak  of  this 
horrible  death  of  one  of  their  most  popular  mediums. 
“We  admit  that  Miss  Eager  was  murdered  by  spirits, 
what  then  ?  ” 


WHAT  THEN  ? 


191 

Why,  it  is  murder,  that  is  all.  A  young  lady  — 
refined,  beautiful,  truthful,  and  good  —  murdered  by 
the  “spirits”!  Yes,  murdered!  The  “spirits”  put 
her  into  the  trance,  rendered  her  “unconscious,”  com¬ 
pelled  her  to  predict  her  own  death,  and  then,  to 
verify  the  spirits’  predictions,  they  compelled  her  to 
swallow  an  enormous  quantity  of  poison  while  she  was 
under  the  spell  they  had  fixed  upon  her ;  she  died 
in  a  few  hours  after.  She  was  a  “  highly  susceptible 
medium,”  and  “under  spirit  influence”  from  first  to 
last. 

We  were  called  upon  to  believe  that  Miss  Eager  was 
truly  “inspired,”  and  we  admit  that  she  was  so  as  much 
as  any  medium  ever  was,  and  merely  by  her  own  views 
and  her  own  ideas  of  “spirits,”  as  others  are.  These 
mediums,  before  and  after  Miss  E.’s  death,  assured 
us  that  she,  being  a  good  lady,  had  good  “guardian 
angels,”  who  “watched  over  her  all  the  time  for  her 
good.”  And  now  we  find  that,  while  in  an  “uncon¬ 
scious  trance,”  induced  by  those  spirits,  she  caused  her 
own  death. 

When  her  suicide  became  fully  known,  it  changed 
the  character  of  all  the  “spirit  messages  ”  at  once,  and 
especially  what  purported  to  come  from  the  suicide 
herself.  We  were  told  that  Hattie’s  spirit  had  “taken 
a  different  view  of  her  predicted  death,”  and  I  will 
now  quote  from  Mr.  Newton,  in  the  Nezv  England 
Spiritualist ,  enough  to  show  how  utterly  disqualified 
the  victims  of  this  mania  were  to  estimate  the  logic  of 
events  in  that  demonstration  that  should  have  annihil¬ 
ated  that  delusion  from  the  face  of  the  earth  forever ! 
And  here  is  the  proof  of  the  “  confusion  worse  con¬ 
founded  :  ”  — 


192 


IDEOLOGY. 


“  In  the  evening  the  spirit  of  Dr.  Fisher  spoke  through 
Mrs.  Conant  in  reference  to  the  death  of  Miss  Hattie  Eager. 
The  purport  of  the  discourse  was,  that  her  death  was  a  sui¬ 
cide  ;  that  circumstances  had  depressed  her  spirit,  and, 
being  a  medium  very  susceptible  to  spirits’  influence,  this 
low  state  of  her  spirit  gave  entrance  to  evil  spirits,  and  they 
assisted  her  to  commit  this  deed.”  —  JV.  E.  Spiritualist , 
Dec.  27,  1856. 

What  nonsense,  what  infatuation,  is  all  this  twaddle 
about  what  “the  spirit  of  Dr.  Fisher”  said!  What 
were  all  Miss  Eager’s  own  “guardian  spirits  ”  about 
while  the  “evil  spirits”  were  planning  and  predicting 
her  murder  for  five  months  ?  And  what  a  miserable 
get-off  we  have  here !  Look  at  it :  Dr.  Fisher,  or 
Dr.  Fowler,  or  Dr.  Hunter,  Dr.  Gunner,  or  any  other 
doctor  you  please.  There  is  no  proof  that  it  was  a 
departed  spirit  who  spoke  through  Mrs.  Conant,  and, 
if  it  was  a  spirit,  there  is  no  proof  that  it  was  Doctor 
Fisher. 

“Dr.  Fisher”  says  “Hattie’s  death  was  a  suicide”  ! 
Indeed,  Dr.  Fisher;  but  pray  why  did  not  Dr.  Fisher 
tell  us  of  something  of  much  more  importance  than 
the  repetition  of  the  discovery  which  was  made  by  no 
medium  nor  ghost  ?  And,  while  the  surgeons  were 
making  that  autopsy  cadaveris  in  her  chamber,  the 
mediums  and  their  “spirits,”  and  “Miss  E.’s  spirit” 
among  the  rest,  were  in  full  blast  in  the  parlor  below 
getting  off  “  beautiful  messages  of  the  summer  land,” 
and  Hattie’s  glorious  exit  and  entrance  into  those  bliss¬ 
ful  abodes  !  No  medium  or  ghost  had  one  word  to  say 
about  suicide  until  it  was  found  out  by  mortals  !  And 
now,  two  months  after  the  death,  a  “spirit,”  purporting 
to  be  Dr.  Fisher,  announces  that  poor  Hattie’s  death 
was  a  sucide.  Marvellous  discovery  ! 


WHAT  THEN  ? 


193 


“  A  suicide  ”  ?  And  how  could  Hattie  commit  sui¬ 
cide,  if,  as  the  “spirits”  have  told  us,  she  was  uncon¬ 
scious,  and  acted  under  spirit  agency  ?  That  is  the 
question.  Let  Dr.  Fisher  answer  that  question  the 
next  time  he  speaks  through  any  medium. 

“Circumstances  had  depressed  Hattie’s  spirit.”  But, 
even  admitting  that  she  was  depressed,  the  “spirits” 
in  question  are  not  benefited  by  the  admission.  They 
predicted  her  death  five  months  before  this  depression 
occurred.  And  hence,  sure  as  that  the  “spirits”  had 
any  agency  at  all  over  Hattie,  it  is  proved  that  they 
contemplated  her  death,  and  planned  it,  months  before 
it  occurred ;  they  designed  it,  and  spoke  of  it  long  be¬ 
fore  she  was  depressed,  and  told  of  it  to  show  mortals 
how  reliable  the  “spirits”  were  in  predicting  events 
before  they  came  to  pass.  The  “spirits”  wished  to 
astonish  mortals,  so  they  predicted  Hattie’s  death,  and 
then  killed  her  to  verify  their  prediction. 

“Depressed  Hattie’s  spirits”?  Circumstances,  the 
“spirits”  say,  depressed  Hattie’s  spirit.  But  how 
could  circumstances  depress  a  soul  over  whom  good 
spirits  have  such  control  as  we  are  told  the  “  spirits  ” 
had  over  Hattie  A.  Eager  ?  If  Hattie  was  depressed, 
the  “spirits”  depressed  her;  for  the  “spirits”  had 
entire  control  over  her,  and  made  her  what  she  was. 

“This  low  state  of  her  spirit  gave  entrance  to  evil 
spirits,  and  they  assisted  her  to  commit  the  deed  ”  ! 
And  here  we  have  this  reluctant  confession,  wrung 
from  mediumship,  in  regard  to  “evil  spirits,”  devils, 
worse  than  in  ancient  witchcraft,  — an  idea  which  this 
mediumship  had  always  ignored  previously,  as  it  does 
to  this  day.  This  confession  is  from  the  lips  of  this 
“Mrs.  Conant,”  who  was  for  years  the  presiding  oracle 


194 


IDEOLOGY. 


in  the  Banner  of  Light  office,  in  Boston,  —  who  has 
personified  Theodore  Parker,  John  Pierpont,  Dr.  Frank¬ 
lin,  and  others  ;  and,  during  her  mediumistic  career  at 
that  office  she  was  detected  again  and  again  in  errors 
such  as  are  but  too  often  uttered  by  mediums  about 
the  dead. 

The  horrid  suicide  of  that  young  lady  she  herself 
predicted,  as  she  herself  declared,  on  the  authority  of 
any  number  of  good  spirits  and  guardian  angels,  so- 
called,  five  months  before  it  occurred.  Now,  look  at  it. 
Why  did  not  those  good  “spirits”  make  known  to 
Hattie  what  those  evil  “spirits  ”  would  do?  Why  did 
they  not  predict  the  manner  of  her  death  ?  The  man¬ 
ner  of  Hattie’s  death  was  as  certain  to  those  “spirits” 
as  the  fact  of  its  occurrence,  which  they  predicted  so 
frequently  for  five  months.  And  I  call  on  the  “spirits,” 
I  call  on  the  mediums, — the  speaking,  writing,  and 
test  mediums,  —  to  answer  these  questions  :  Was  not 
the  manner  of  Hattie’s  death  known  to  the  “spirits” 
who  predicted  it  ?  Why  was  no  caution  uttered  by  the 
“good  spirits  ”  when  they  predicted  her  death  ?  Where 
were  Hattie’s  guardian  angels  during  those  five  months, 
that  they  never  once  premonished  her  against  suicide  ? 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


SCIENCE. 

Aspiration  is  common  to  humanity,  and  is  as  old 
as  the  race,  while  the  Christian  idea  of  prayer  is  of 
recent  date.  It  may  result  in  prayer ;  but  it  is  a  mis¬ 
use  of  terms  to  use  the  words  interchangeably,  as  if 
they  meant  one  and  the  same  thing.  The  Christian 
definition  of  prayer  is  a  petition  addressed  to  one’s 
idea  of  an  infinite,  invisible  personage.  And  the 
answer  to  such  a  prayer  is  only  when  the  mind  offering 
it  can  persuade  itself  to  believe  that  an  infinite  per¬ 
sonal  intelligence  has  done  an  act  that  it  never  would 
have  done  but  for  the  “prayer”  thus  made  “in  faith.” 

All  this  is  a  matter  of  faith  ;  and,  in  the  mind  of  the 
Christian  thus  praying,  there  is  no  proof  that  mere 
faith  is,  or  ever  was,  an  executive  power,  outside  of 
the  mind  by  which  it  is  exercised,  —  none  whatever. 
As  faith  is  the  motive-power  of  prayer,  so  it  is  the  same 
power  that  answers  the  prayers  which  are  uttered  by 
itself. 

Aspire,  aspiration,  from  as,  or  ad  (“to,”  or  “after”), 
and  spiro ,  “to  breathe,”  comprehends  views,  wishes,  and 
hopes  that  are  common  to  humanity,  without  the  slight¬ 
est  idea  of  Christianity.  Indeed,  aspiration,  hope,  trust, 
and  veneration  all  come  from  the  filial  relation  ;  and 


T95 


196 


IDEOLOGY. 


these  natural  instincts  of  the  human  mind  are  abnor¬ 
mally  crystallized  into  faith  in  mysticism  and  fanati¬ 
cism.  All  we  know  of  virtue  —  goodness,  justice,  and 
truth  —  comes  from  the  relations  of  life,  and  is  in  no 
sense  dependent  upon  Christianity. 

Science  is  classified  ideas  that  recognize  all  the 
factors.  “  Science  is  trained  and  organized  common 
sense.” — Professor  Huxley.  “Science  may  be  called 
an  extension  of  the  perceptions  by  the  means  of  reason¬ 
ing.” —  Herbert  Spencer.  It  was  of  physical  science 
that  Professor  Tyndall  was  speaking  when  he  said 
that,  “  Inasmuch  as  evolution  is  in  its  hypothetical  stage, 
the  ban  of  seclusion  ought  to  fall  upon  this  theory.” 
Christianity  would  collapse  and  fall  to  the  ground  like 
the  rent  balloon  were  its  leading  theologians  to  assume 
and  maintain  a  similar  position  in  regard  to  all  that 
is  merely  hypothetical  in  that  theory  of  the  unknown. 
Indeed,  take  all  that  we  know  to  be  human ,  all  human 
ideas,  from  “modern  Spiritualism”  and  Christianity, 
and  nothing  whatever  would  be  left !  But  since  physi¬ 
cal  science  made  its  “new  departure,”  a  few  years 
since,  in  substituting  experiment  for  theory,  no  mere 
hypothetical  law  in  the  order  of  nature  can  be  admitted 
to  the  sum  total  of  knowledge,  till  it  has  been  proved 
by  actual  experiment.  A  law  thus  proved  accounts  for 
all  the  phenomena,  and  thus  it  is  that  science  becomes 
an  authority  from  which  there  can  be  no  appeal. 

And  when  the  immortal  Faraday  declared  that  the 
conservation  and  the  correlation  of  all  forms  of  force 
was  the  greatest  discovery  in  physical  science  which 
the  human  mind  had  the  capacity  for  making,  it  was 
not  known  to  him  that  in  America  one  human  mind 
had  made  a  discovery  in  mental  science,  in  regard  to 


SCIENCE. 


I97 


selfhood ,  self-control ,  and  self -involution  and  evolution , 
that  should  rank,  perhaps,  with  any  made  in  physical 
science.  And,  as  psychology  should  certainly  come 
within  the  range  of  theological  studies,  it  may  not  be 
thought  marvellous,  perhaps,  that  a  “revival  minister,” 
after  having  witnessed  all  the  nervous  and  mental 
phenomena  peculiar  to  “religious  revivals,”  should,  in 
1836,  have  hit  upon  the  truly  scientific  method  of 
experiment ,  and  determined  this  law  of  self-induction 
as  supreme  in  the  human  mind. 

All  phenomena  alleged  to  have  occurred  by  forms  of 
force  or  laws  regarding  which  mankind  are  wholly  in 
the  dark  are  mystical \  because  we  do  not  know  the 
laws  by  which  they  are  evolved.  Hence,  they  are  not 
so  much  to  science  as  the  fall  of  a  meteor  from  the 
heavens.  Christianity  and  modern  mediumship  are 
both  alike  based  upon  faith  in  this  class  of  phenomena. 
This  faith  is  defined  in  Heb.  xi.  1.  It  is  the  “evi¬ 
dence”  that  each  mind  creates  for  itself  “of  things 
unseen.”  And  hence  it  is  that  no  Christian,  no  Spirit¬ 
ualist,  under  the  control  of  this  self-induced  faith,  can 
believe  in  the  law  of  self-induction.  Always  and  every¬ 
where,  as  the  mind  is  more  or  less  under  the  control 
of  faith  in  the  unknown,  it  ignores  science  and  faith  in 
humanity ;  and  this  is  the  reason  why,  as  Professor 
Tyndall  says,  the  “waves  of  science  beat  in  vain” 
against  the  “spell”  by  which  this  faith,  in  exciting 
this  law  of  self-induction,  thus  victimizes  the  human 
mind.  How  powerful  this  “  spell,”  —  this  same  “  Chris¬ 
tian  faith,”  —  often  becomes  is  shown  in  the  cases  of 
little  children  who  have  been  killed  by  Christian  parents 
in  America  :  one  by  Freeman  and  his  wife,  in  Pocasset, 
Mass. ;  three  by  Hemmell,  a  German,  in  Chicopee, 


198 


IDEOLOGY. 


Mass.  ;  and  one  by  Mrs.  E.  Deering,  September  30, 
1879,  Erie,  Pa.  These  parents,  whose  hands  are  now 
dripping  with  the  blood  of  their  murdered  children, 
were  not  insane ;  they  were  each  of  them  good  Chris¬ 
tians,  and  as  pious  as  the  Pope,  or  any  bishop,  or  any 
Christian  now  living.  Yet  these  parents,  when  lifting 
their  weapons  of  death  in  the  act  of  murder,  had 
“faith,”  even  “the  faith  of  Abraham  in  God;”  but, 
plainly  enough,  they  had  no  faith  in  humanity  s  relig¬ 
ion!  And  did  not  Jesus  ignore  faith  in  humanity  when 
he  commanded  his  followers  to  hate  husband,  wife, 
parent,  child,  brother,  sister,  and  one’s  own  life,  also  ? 
And  do  not  Spiritualists  ignore  science  and  humanity 
when  they  abandon  their  own  selfhood  to  the  control 
of  their  faith  in  a  nondescript  invisibility  ?  Thus,  minds 
under  the  supreme  control  of  faith  in  mystical  phe¬ 
nomena  withhold  their  assent  to  the  maxim  of  Des¬ 
cartes,  who  says,  “Give  unqualified  assent  to  no  propo¬ 
sitions  but  those  the  truth  of  which  is  so  clear  and 
distinct  that  they  cannot  be  doubted.” 

I  have  a  word  only  in  regard  to  the  statement  of 
Carlyle,  quoted  by  Professor  Tyndall,  “that  the  human 
soul  has  claims  and  yearnings  which  physical  science 
cannot  satisfy.”  To  this  I  reply:  — 

1.  For  all  the  normal  and  hygienic  wants  of  human¬ 
ity  the  supply  is  always  at  hand.  All  essential  is 
instinctive ,  and  no  knowledge  absolutely  beyond  our 
sphere  can  be  necessary  for  man’s  highest  good. 

2.  The  “yearnings”  referred  to  by  Carlyle  are  fac¬ 
titious,  and  they  are  created  by  dogmatism,  by  super¬ 
stitious  appeals  made  to  human  credulity ,  ignorance , 
and  fear !  And  nothing  more  is  required  of  physical 
science  than  to  show,  as  it  has  done  effectually,  that 


SCIENCE. 


I99 


all  such  fear  and  “yearnings”  are  unnecessary,  and 
result  in  no  permanent  good. 

3.  Modern  Spiritualism  and  Christianity  heal  no 
wounds  which  these  isms  of  the  unknown  have  not 
inflicted  upon  the  human  mind.  The  invisible  nonde¬ 
scripts  know  nothing  of  us,  except  what  they  are  able 
to  learn  by  contact  with  human  “mediums.”  And 
what  of  a  nondescript  deity  that  saves  us  from  no  evil 
that  his  omniscience  had  not  already  got  us  into  ? 

Jesus  declared  of  himself,  truly,  when  he  told  his 
followers  that  he  had  no  power  to  work  miracles  except 
that  with  which  he  was  invested  by  their  “faith.”  And 
in  Hebrews  xi.  6,  a  similar  statement  is  made  of  the 
Christian  God. 

“  It  is  not  true  that  “  prayer  belongs  to  the  child¬ 
hood  of  the  race  ;  ”  nor  is  it  true  that  it  belongs  “  more 
to  mature  manhood.”  To  mature  manhood  it  apper¬ 
tains  to  understand  more  of  the  laws  of  Nature  and 
the  constitution  of  things,  and  to  find  our  highest 
aspirations  gratified  in  their  harmonious  fulfillment, 
while  we  can  easily  understand  how  it  is  in  respect  to 
prayer. 

Psychological  experiment  has  demonstrated  that 
“saving  faith  ”  is  no  power  beyond  the  human  organism 
in  which  it  is  exercised  ;  that,  when  sensational  appeals 
are  made  to  credulity  and  wonder ,  it  excites  the  law  of 
self-induction,  which  is  the  greatest  power,  purely  men¬ 
tal,  known  to  the  human  mind. 

Relief  comes  to  the  human  mind  from  hygiene  and 
psychology  that  physical  science  may  not  be  competent 
to  secure.  And  “faith”  in  mystical  phenomena  and 
all  forms  of  superstition  will  disappear  just  as  soon  as 
theologians  find  out  the  scope  of  credulity  and  “faith.” 


200 


IDEOLOGY. 


And  all  isms  of  the  unknown  would  be  wiped  out  from 
the  face  of  our  planet  to-day,  were  a  knowledge  of 
psychology  as  common  as  the  Sunday-School  lessons 
taught  to  the  children. 


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G 


CATALOGUE  OF  STANDARD  BOOKS. 


Side,  the  Resurrection  of  Lazarus,  The  Unjust  Steward, 
The  Devil,  The  Rich  Man  and  Lazarus,  The  Day  of  Temp¬ 
tation  in  the  Wilderness,  Aliab,  or  the  Lying  Spirit,  the 
Fall  of  Man,  Noah,  Abraham,  Sarah,  Melchisedec,  The 
Lord,  Moses,  The  Twelve  Patriarchs,  Who  is  the  Lord  ? 
Exodus,  Aaron,  Miriam.  Price,  cloth,  $1.50. 

DTIOLBACH. 

The  System  of  Nature  ;  or,  Laws  of  the  Moral  and  Physi¬ 
cal  World.  By  Baron  D’Holbach,  author  of  “Good 
Sense,”  &c.  A  new  and  improved  edition,  with  Notes  by 
Diderot.  Translated  from  the  French  byH.  D.  Robinson. 
Two  volumes  in  one.  Price,  cloth,  $2.00. 

The  Letters  to  Eugenia  ;  or,  A  preservative  Against  Reli¬ 
gious  Prejudice.  By  Baron  D’Holbach,  author  of  “  The 
System  of  Nature,”  &c.  Translated  from  the  French  by 
Anthony  C.  Middleton,  M.  D.  Price  cloth,  $1.00. 

Good  Sense.  Bv  Baron  D’Holbach.  A  new  edition  of 
this  truly  valuable  book.  Friends  who  want  “Good 
Sense,”  (and  who  does  not  ?)  can  have  a  supply  sent  by 
mail  by  forwarding  their  orders.  Price,  cloth,  $1.00. 

COOPER. 

Cooper’s  Lectures  ou  the  Soul  —  In  which  the  doctrine  of 
Immortality  is  religiously  and  philosophically  considered. 
This  is  a  work  of  vast  importance  to  those  who  look  on 
this  life  as  only  a  state  of  probation.  Price,  cloth,  50  cts. 

The  InfldePs  or  Inquirer’s  Text-hook ;  being  the  sub¬ 
stance  of  thirteen  Lectures  on  the  Bible,  by  Robert 
Cooper.  Price,  cloth,  $1.00. 

Autobiography  of  Robert  Cooper.  Price,  15  cents. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

The  Doctrine  of  Inspiration.  “  A  book  written  by  an  Or¬ 
thodox  Clergyman,  which  decidedly  denies  the  doctrine  of 
Scriptural  Infallibility,”  being  an  Inquiry  concerning  the 


CATALOGUE  OF  STANDARD  BOOKS.  7 

Infallibility,  Inspiration,  and  Authority  of  Holy  Writ. 
By  the  Rev.  John  Macnaught,  M.  A.,  Incumbent  of 
St.  Chiysostom’s  Church,  Everton,  Liverpool,  (Eng.) 
Price,  cloth,  $1.25. 

History  of  the  Council  of  Nice,  A.  D.  325,  with  a  Life  of 
Constantine  the  Great,  and  a  general  exhibition  of  the 
Christian  religion  in  the  days  of  the  early  Fathers.  By 
Dean  Dudley.  Price,  full  cloth,  $1.00;  paper,  50  cents. 

History  of  Moses,  Aaron,  Joshua,  and  others,  deduced 
from  a  Review  of  the  Bible.  Also,  Remarks  on  the  Mor¬ 
als  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  and  some  of  the  An¬ 
cient  Philosophers.  By  J.  M.  Dorsey.  Price,  cloth,  75c. 

Religious  Worship.  The  origin  of  all  Religious  Worship, 
translated  from  the  French  of  Dupuis,  containing  a  de¬ 
scription  of  the  Zodiac  of  Denderah.  Price,  cloth,  $2.00. 

Reason,  the  only  Oracle  of  Man ;  or,  A  Compendious 
S3*stem  of  Natural  Religion.  By  Col.  Ethan  Allen. — 
Price,  cloth,  50  cents. 

A  Legacy  to  the  Friends  of  Free  Discussion ;  being  a 
Review  of  the  Principles,  Historical  Facts  and  Personages 
of  the  Books  known  as  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  ;  with 
Remarks  on  the  Morality  of  Nature.  By  Benjamin  Offen, 
formerly  Lecturer  of  the  Society  of  Moral  Philanthropists, 
at  Tammany  Hall,  New  York.  Price,  cloth,  $1.00. 

The  Bible  of  Rational  Mind  and  Religion,  Rational  Re¬ 
ligion  and  Morals  ;  presenting  an  Analysis  of  the  Func¬ 
tions  of  Mind,  under  the  operations  and  directions  of  Rea¬ 
son  ;  the  first,  eliciting  the  necessary,  rational,  and  only 
religion,  Monotheism,  or  the  Religion  of  Principles  ;  the 
second,  the  Obvious  Duties  and  Precautions  of  Society. — 
By  Thomas  J.  Vaiden,  M.  D.,  of  St.  Louis,  (Mo.)  This 
is  a  large  octavo,  containing  over  1000  pages.  Price, 
cloth,  $2.00. 

Helvetius  $  or,  The  true  meaning  of  the  System  of  Nature. 
Translated  from  the  French.  Price,  cloth,  20  cents. 

Divine  and  Moral  Works  of  Plato.  Translated  from  the 
Original  Greek ;  with  introductory  Dissertations  and 


8 


CATALOGUE  OF  STANDARD  BOOKS. 


Notes.  First  American  from  the  Sixth  London  edition, 
carefully  revised  and  corrected.  Price,  cloth,  $2.50. 

Sociology ;  or,  The  Scientific  Reconstruction  of  Society, 
Government,  and  Property  upon  the  principles  of  the 
equality,  the  perpetuity,  and  the  individuality  of  the  pri¬ 
vate  ownership  of  Life,  Person,  Government,  Homestead, 
and  the  whole  product  of  Labor.  By  L.  Masquerier. — 
Price,  cloth,  $1.00. 

Half-hours  with  some  Ancient  and  Modern  celebrated 
Freethinkers;  Thomas  Hobbs,  Lord  Bolingbroke,  Con- 
dorcet,  Spinoza,  Anthony  Collins,  Des  Cartes,  M.  de  Vol¬ 
taire,  John  ’Poland,  Compt  de  Volney,  Charles  Blount, 
Percy  Bysshe  Shelley,  Claude  Arian  Helvetius,  Francis 
Wright  Darusmont,  Zeno,  Epicuras,  Mathew  Tindal,  Da¬ 
vid  Hume,  Dr.  Thomas  Burnet,  Thomas  Paine,  Baptiste 
de  Mirabaud,  Baron  de  Holbach,  Robert  Taylor,  Joseph 
Barker.  By  k 4  Iconoclast,”  Collins,  and  Watts.  Price, 
cloth,  75  cents. 

Talleyrand’s  Letter  to  Pope  Pius  VII.  Translated  from 
the  French  into  Portuguese  by  D.  J.  Monteiro,  and  from 
Portuguese  into  English  by  PI.  D.  Robinson  ;  with  a  Me¬ 
moir  of  the  Author.  Price,  25  cents. 

Origin  and  development  of  Religious  Ideas  and  Beliefs, 

as  manifested  in  History,  and  seen  by  Reason.  By  Mor¬ 
ris  PIinstein.  Price,  cloth,  $1.00. 

The  Clergy  a  source  of  danger  to  the  American  Repub¬ 
lic.  By  W.  F.  Jamieson.  Price,  cloth,  $1.75,  postage  paid. 

Testimonials  to  Thomas  Paine,  Author  of  “Common 
Sense,”  “The  Crisis,”  “Rights  of  Man,”  “English  Sys¬ 
tem  of  Finance,”  “Age  of  Reason,”  &c.  Compiled  by 
Joseph  N.  Moreau.  lJrice,  15  cents. 

A  Feiv  Hays  in  Athens.  By  Frances  Wright.  Embel¬ 
lished  with  the  portrait  of  Epicurus,  the  Greek  Philoso¬ 
pher,  and  the  author.  Price,  cloth,  75  cents. 

Hume’s  Essays.  Essays  and  Treatises  on  various  subjects, 
by  David  Hume,  Esq.,  with  a  brief  Sketch  of  the  Author’s 
Life  and  Writings,  to  which  are  added  Dialogues  concern¬ 
ing  Natural  Religion.  Price,  cloth,  $1.50. 


catalogue  op1  standard  books. 


9 


The  Festival  of  Ashtaroth.  A  Tale  of  Palestine,  founded 
on  the  destruction  of  the  Moabites  by  the  Jews.  By  A.  C. 
Middleton.  Price,  10  cents. 

Kneeland’s  National  Hymns.  Price,  35  cents. 

The  Rainbow  Creed.  By  the  author  of  “  Where  are  my 
Horns  ?”  Price,  cloth,  $1.50. 

66  Our  Ships  at  Sea.”  A  Poem  describing  the  vivid  imagi¬ 
nation  of  youth,  its  promises,  hopes,  visions,  and  final  re¬ 
alities  in  old  age.  By  Miss  Elizabeth  Mendum.  In 
handsome  pamphlet  form.  Price,  10  cents. 

Man’s  Nature  and  Development.  By  Henry  George 
Atkinson,  F.  G.  S.,  and  Harriet  Martineau.  Very 
scarce.  Price,  full  gilt,  $1.50. 

A  Good  Word  for  the  Devil.  Bible  Musings,  by  an  Infi¬ 
del  ;  with  a  frontispiece  of  the  Serpent,  Tree  of  Life,  and 
Adam  and  Eve,  copied  from  a  Babylonian  Cylinder,  and  a 
picture  of  our  first  parents  in  the  act  of  partaking  of  the 
“forbidden  fruit.”  Copied  from  the  Old  New  England 
Primer  of  1777.  By  Simeon  Palmer,  M.  D.  Price,  50c. 

Defense  Of  Atheism.  This  very  interesting  Lecture,  by 
Mrs.  E.  L.  Rose,  which  was  delivered  in  Boston  some 
twenty  years  ago,  but  has  recently  been  printed  in  the  In¬ 
vestigator,  now  issued  in  pamphlet  form.  Price  10  cents. 

J.  E.  Remsburg’s  Vindication  of  Paine.  An  admirable 
little  work. — [Hon.  T.  B.  Wakeman.]  A  worthy  tribute 
to  a  worthy  man. — [Prof.  Denton.]  A  generous  effort  to 
vindicate  a  great  and  good  man. — [James  Parton.] — 
Price,  cloth,  75  cents  ;  paper,  50  cents. 

The  Yahoo  and  Great  Dragon  cast  out ;  in  one  volume. 
Now  if  you  want  to  laugh,  send  and  get  a  copy.  Price, 
cloth,  $1.35. 

An  Expose  of  the  cause  of  Intemperate  Drinking.  By 

Judge  Thomas  IIerttell.  Price,  15  cents. 

Rights  of  Married  Women  to  hold  Property.  Price,  25c. 

“  Antichrist.”  The  Story  of  Jesus  Christ;  his  Birth, 
Life,  Trial,  Execution,  &c.  By  “Antichrist.”  Price, 
cloth,  $2.00. 


10 


LIBERAL  PAMPHLETS. 


Queen  Mab,  with  Notes.  By  Percy  B.  Shelley.  Price, 
cloth,  50  cents. 

Socialism  and  Utilitarianism.  By  John  Stuart  Mill. 
Price,  cloth,  $1.25. 


LIBERAL  PAMPHLETS. 

The  Logic  of  Death ;  or,  Why  should  the  Unbeliever  or  Ath¬ 
eist  fear  to  die  ?  By  G-.  Jacob  Holyoake.  Price,  10  cents. 

Where  are  my  Horns ?  A  new  edition  of  this  very  interest¬ 
ing  pamphlet.  Price,  20  cents. 

The  Beginnings  of  Things;  or,  Science  vs.  Theology.  Prof. 
Tyndall’s  great  Inaugural  Speech  before  the  British  Asso¬ 
ciation  for  the  Advancement  of  Science.  Price,  25  cents. 

Self-Contradictions  of  the  Bible ;  144  propositions  proved 
affirmatively  and  negatively  from  Scripture,  without  com¬ 
ment.  Price,  15  cents. 

Opinions  of  Celebrated  Men  on  True  and  False  Religion. 
Price.  10  cents. 

Letters  to  the  Catholic  Bishop  of  Boston,  proving  that  the  Ro¬ 
man  Catholic  Religion  is  opposed  to  a  Republican  Govern¬ 
ment.  By  an  Independent  Irishman.  Price,  15  cents. 

Man's  True  Saviours.  A  Discourse  delivered  in  Music 
Hall,  Boston,  by  William  Denton.  Price,  10  cents. 

Sermon  from  Shakspeare’s  Text ,  delivered  in  Music  Hall, 
Boston,  by  William  Denton.  Price,  10  cents. 

Profession  of  Faith  of  a  Savoyard  Vicar.  By  S.  J.  Rosseau. 
Price,  10  cents. 

Sectarian  Influence  in  Schools ,  and  on  the  Sabbath  and  Sun¬ 
day  Mail  Question.  By  J.  A.  Stewart.  Price,  15  cents. 

Concessions  of  Christians  in  Favor  of  Infidelity.  Price,  10c. 

Christianity  no  Finality ;  or,  Spiritualism  Superior  to  Chris¬ 
tianity.  By  William  Denton..  Price,  10  cents. 

Equality ;  or,  a  History  of  Lithconia.  Price,  15  cents. 

Codology.  Price,  2  cents. 


LIST  OF  FREE -THOUGHT 


AND 

MISCELLANEOUS  WORKS, 

FOR  SALE  AT  THE 

INVESTIGATOR  OFFICE. 


Abstract  of  Colenso  on  the  Pentateuch.  Price,  25  cents. 

Advancement  of  Science.  The  Inaugural  Address  of 
Prof.  John  Tyndall  delivered  before  the  British  Associa¬ 
tion  for  the  Advancement  of  Science.  With  Portrait  and 
Biographical  sketch.  Also  containing  opinions  of  Prof. 
H.  Helmholtz  and  articles  of  Prof.  Tyndall  and  Sir  Henry 
Thompson  on  prayer.  Price,  cloth,  50  cents.  Inaugural 
Address  alone  in  paper,  15  cents. 

Age  of  Reason.  By  Thomas  Paine.  Examination  of  the 
Prophecies,  Essay  on  Dreams,  &c.  Price,  cloth,  75  cents. 

American  Addresses.  IIuxeley.  Price,  cloth,  $1.25. 

Analysis  Of  Religious  Relief.  An  examination  of  the 
Creeds,  Rites,  and  Sacred  Writings  of  the  World.  By 
Viscount  Amberley,  son  of  the  late  Lord  John  Russell, 
twice  Premier  of  England.  Complete  from  the  London 
edition.  745  pages,  8vo.  In  cloth,  $3.00  ;  leather,  $4.00  ; 
morocco,  gilt  edges,  $4.50. 

Anonymous  Hypothesis  of  Creation.  A  Brief  Review  of 
the  so-called  Mosaic  Account.  By  James  J.  Furniss. 
Price,  cloth,  $2.50. 

Apples  of  Gold.  By  Miss  Susan  H.  Wixon.  A  Story 
Book  for  Boys  and  Girls.  New  edition  with  portrait  of 
the  Author.  Price,  cloth,  $1.25. 

Apochryphal  New  Testament.  Being  all  the  Gospels, 
Epistles,  and  other  pieces  now  extant,  attributed  in  the 
first  four  centuries  to  Jesus  Christ,  his  Apostles,  and  their 


12 


FREE-THOUGHT  MISCELLANEOUS  WORKS. 


companions,4  and  not  included  in  the  New  Testament  by  its 
compilers.  Price,  doth,  $1.25. 

“  Anti-Christ.”  The  Story  of  Jesus  Christ ;  his  Birth,  Life, 
Trial,  Execution,  &c.  Price,  cloth,  $2.00. 

Antiquity  and  Duration  of  the  World.  By  the  learned 
Dr.  G.  Toulmin.  Price,  25  cents. 

Ancient  Man  in  America.  By  Frederick  Larkin,  M.  D. 
Price,  cloth,  $1.50. 

Anti-Prohibition.  By  W.  S.  Bell.  Price,  5  cents. 

An  Historical  Sketch  of  Sacerdotal  Celibacy  in  the 
Christian  Church.  By  Henry  C.  Lea.  Second  edition, 
enlarged.  8vo.  $4.50.  This  subject  has  recently  been 
treated  with  very  great  learning,  and  with  admirable  im¬ 
partiality  by  an  American  author,  Mr.  Henry  C.  Lea,  in 
his  “  History  of  Sacerdotal  Celibacy,”  which  is  certainly 
one  of  the  most  valuable  works  that  America  has  pro¬ 
duced.  Since  the  great  history  of  Dean  Milman,  I  know 
no  work  in  English  which  has  thrown  more  light  on  the 
moral  condition  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  none  which  is 
more  fitted  to  dispel  the  gross  illusions  concerning  that 
period  which  Positive  writers  and  writers  of  a  certain  eccle¬ 
siastical  school  have  conspired  to  sustain. — W.  E.  H. 
Lecky,  in  “  History  of  European  Morals.” 

Answers  to  Christian  Questions  and  Arguments.  By 

D.  M.  Bennett.  Price,  25  cents. 

'  • 

Animals  and  Plants  under  Domestication.  Darwin. 

2  vols.,  cloth,  $5.00. 

Aspirations  Of  the  World;  A  Chain  of  Opals.  Child, 
(Lydia  Maria.)  Price,  cloth,  $1.25. 

Astronomy  and  Worship  of  the  Ancients.  By  Gilbert 
Vale.  Price,  25  cents. 

Autobiography  of  Robert  Cooper.  Price,  15  cents. 

Autobiography  of  Harriet  Martineau.  Edited  by  Maria 
Weston  Chapman.  Two  large  volumes;  price,  $6.00. 
These  volumes  cannot  fail  to  absorb  the  attention  of  the 
Reformer  and  Philanthropist  when  once  begun. 


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